Different Intensities of Evening Exercise on Sleep in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

The effects of different intensities of evening exercise on subsequent sleep remain contradictory. Thus, this systematic review and network meta-analysis aimed to compare and rank the effects of different intensities of acute evening exercise on sleep in healthy adults with good sleep. Articles were systematically searched journals indexed in the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Scopus databases from inception to the 5th of May, 2022. The basic search terms included exercise, sleep and timing, which were combined with AND. Of the 12,203 retrieved, twenty-eight studies with 325 participants met the inclusion criteria. Results revealed that there were no significant differences in terms of impacts on sleep caused by different intensities of acute evening exercise, except that when compared to no exercise, acute evening high-intensity exercise decreased rapid eye movement sleep (mean difference [MD] = −1.95%, 95% credible interval [CI] = −3.58 to −0.35). Compared to no exercise, acute evening moderate-intensity exercise was ranked as the most potential method to improve sleep, displaying a trend to improve wake time after sleep onset (MD = −2.50 min, 95% CI = −8.17 to 1.62), sleep efficiency (MD = +0.41%, 95% CI = −0.71 to 1.66), the proportion of stage N1 (MD = −0.72%, 95% CI = −2.08 to 0.71) and N3 sleep (slow-wave sleep) (MD = +0.84%, 95% CI = −1.17 to 2.78). Acute evening low-intensity exercise displayed the greatest tendency to shorten sleep onset latency (MD = −1.02 min, 95% CI = −4.39 to 2.50) compared to no exercise. Overall, regardless of intensity, acute evening exercise completed before bedtime does not disrupt subsequent sleep in healthy young and middle-aged adults.