If you’re 60 or over and suffer from insomnia, you might consider lifting weights before going to bed. A study analyzing the effects of different exercises on sleep suggested that weight or resistance training is the most effective exercise to help you nod off — but some other fitness activities are helpful, too, according to a report in the BMJ Family Medicine and Community Health.
The metanalysis (meaning the study combined data from many other similar studies) examined how different kinds of exercises improved each participant’s sleep score, based on a questionnaire. The study looked at the sleep benefits of five bedtime fitness regimes: aerobic/endurance, strength/resistance, balance, flexibility, and combo.
“The outcomes of this study indicate that strengthening exercise is the most efficacious among others, followed by aerobic exercise and combination exercise,” according to the authors in the paper. “Nevertheless, all these types of exercise improve sleep quality beyond significant differences.”
Strengthening Your Sleep
The study, led by a group of researchers from Thailand, compared and analyzed data from over 2,000 people age 60 or over from 24 earlier trials. Moderate strength or resistance training was ranked more effective than sleep education. Aerobic exercise, followed by a combination of aerobic and strength also worked, but not as well.
Sleep quality directly impacts health, the study emphasized. Its quality declines with age. Older people experience more insomnia than younger people, with 30 to 48 percent of seniors complaining of sleepiness, while 12 to 20 percent report insomnia problems.
Read More: Why Walking Might Be One of the Best Exercises For Health
Impacts of Insomnia
Research has linked sleep issues to both mental and physical health problems. Insomnia has been linked to depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. On the physical side, studies have linked sleeplessness to hypertension, heart disease, and some metabolic disorders.
The authors expressed some surprise that strength training alone seemed a better sleep aide than the combination of aerobic exercise with strength training or the combination of several exercise types. The authors can’t prove the reason behind this gap, but have some ideas.
“The unexpected discrepancy in this outcome might be attributed to the intensity of exercise among the strengthening exercise group, in which high-intensity exercise represented approximately 50 percent of studies compared with other groups with very limited information on intensity data,” according to the paper.
Don’t Get So Intense
Earlier studies also provided some clues — but aren’t considered definitive. One that included both young and older people suggested that moderate exercise might be more effective in promoting sleep for all age groups compared to more vigorous workouts. Another indicated that either a high physical workload or vigorous activities before bedtime could impede sleep.
It’s probably safe to say that lifting weights before you head to bed can improve your slumber — as long as you don’t overdo it.
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
