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Should I exercise to sleep better?

Last updated: October 15, 2026

Yes. Regular exercise modestly improves sleep: it helps you fall asleep a little faster, sleep a little longer and rate your sleep as better. Evening workouts are generally fine; only vigorous exercise ending within about an hour of bedtime may delay sleep.

The benefits

A meta-analysis of 66 studies found that regular exercise has small benefits for total sleep time and sleep efficiency, small-to-medium benefits for time to fall asleep, and moderate benefits for sleep quality (Kredlow et al., 2015). Exercise intensity did not significantly change the effect.

Best timing

Morning, afternoon and evening all work. A review of 23 studies found that evening exercise does not harm sleep in general, and even added a little deep sleep; the exception was vigorous exercise ending an hour or less before bedtime, which may delay sleep and shorten it (Stutz et al., 2019).

Consistency

The studies measured regular exercise, so consistency matters more than any single hard session. A practical target is the general health guideline of 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, spread across several days.

Sources

1. Kredlow et al., Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2015. The effects of physical activity on sleep: a meta-analytic review
2. Stutz et al., Sports Medicine, 2019. Effects of evening exercise on sleep in healthy participants: a systematic review and meta-analysis