Exercise effects on sleep physiology
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This mini-review focuses on the effects of exercise on sleep. In its early days, sleep research largely focused on central nervous system (CNS) physiology using standardized tabulations of several sleep-specific landmark electroencephalogram (EEG) waveforms. Though coarse, this method has enabled the observation and inspection of numerous uninterrupted sleep phenomena. The research on the effects of exercise on sleep began, in the 1960s, with a focus primarily on sleep related EEG changes (CNS sleep). Those early studies found only small effects of exercise on sleep. However, more recent sleep research has explored not only CNS functioning, but somatic physiology as well. Sleep should be affected by daytime exercise, as physical activity alters endocrine, autonomic nervous system (ANS), and somatic functions. Since endocrinological, metabolic, and autonomic changes can be measured during sleep, it should be possible to assess exercise effects on somatic physiology in addition to CNS sleep quality, evaluated by standard polysomnographic (PSG) techniques. Additional measures of somatic physiology have provided enough evidences to conclude that the auto-regulatory, global regulation of sleep is not the exclusive domain of the CNS, but it is heavily influenced by inputs from the rest of the body.
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Several mechanisms provide a rationale for the improvement in insomnia symptoms from exercise, including reducing core body temperature for sleep onset, increasing melatonin and serotonin secretion, reducing depression and anxiety, and improving autonomic regulation which may reduce hyperarousal associated with insomnia.
“Several mechanisms that provide a rationale for the improvement in insomnia symptoms from exercise have been suggested [133,136,137,138,139]; these include but are not limited to reducing core body temperature for sleep onset [140,141,142,143], increasing melatonin and serotonin secretion [131,144], reducing depression and anxiety, and improving autonomic regulation which may reduce hyperarousal”
From The Cyclical Battle of Insomnia and Mental Health Impairment in Firefighters: A Narrative Review (2024) · cites this paper as [143]
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The Cyclical Battle of Insomnia and Mental Health Impairment in Firefighters: A Narrative Review
Holland-Winkler, A. M., Greene, D. R., & Oberther, T. J. (2024) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm13082169 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
- Authors
- Uchida, S., Shioda, K., Morita, Y., Kubota, C., Ganeko, M., & Takeda, N.
- Affiliations
- Waseda University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Uchida, Sunao
- Venue
- Frontiers in Neurology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 3
- Pages
- 48-48
- ISSN
- 1664-2295 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3317043
- OpenAlex
- W2088796159
- Cited by
- 277
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 14.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Frontiers in Neurology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Keywords
- physical activity, sleep physiology, sleep regulation, autonomic nervous system, endocrine changes, sleep EEG, polysomnography, sleep-wake regulation
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