Can Exercise Alleviate the Symptoms of Insomnia?

The researchers identified a trend toward improvement in WASO, sleep efficiency, and night-to-night variability in sleep duration in the exercise group. The small patient population may explain why the changes in these parameters were not statistically significant, said Dr. Zee.

Future Research Could Explore Large, Diverse Populations
Future research in certain areas, such as the mechanisms through which exercise reduces insomnia, would be valuable, said Dr. Zee. Studies that examine exercise as an adjunctive therapy for insomnia, alongside modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnotics, also could provide clinically useful information. Exercise appears to have “great potential” as a treatment, but the comparative lack of data in this area underscores the need for large, multicenter, controlled trials in diverse populations with insomnia, concluded Dr. Zee.

—Erik Greb