Effects of physical activity on sleep quality and wellbeing

Physical activity (PA) has pluripotential beneficial effects on body functions. These benefits include reduction in the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and death. In addition to these effects, PA exerts significant beneficial effects on sleep onset, duration and quality, which add to its beneficial effects. In contrast, lack of sleep has been associated with increased incidence of CVD complications and death. In this regard, PA serves as a non-pharmacologic means for sleep improvement especially in older people, who frequently have difficulties in falling asleep. Regarding the timing of exercise and its effect on sleep, there has been no difference between morning and evening exercise on the onset and quality of sleep. With respect the beneficial cardiovascular effects of PA on sleep, there has been a debate among several investigators with some reporting significant beneficial effects of PA, and others reporting not significant beneficial effects. In order to get a better perspective on the effects of PA on quality of sleep, and its cardiovascular beneficial effects, a Medline search of the English literature was conducted between 2017 and 2023 using the terms exercise, sleep, cardiovascular disease, death and 36 pertinent papers were selected (Figure 1). The findings from these papers together with collateral literature will be discussed in this review.