Skip to main content
Log in

Sleep onset is disrupted following pre-sleep exercise that causes large physiological excitement at bedtime

  • Original Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Many studies have failed to show that pre-sleep exercise has a negative effect on sleep onset. However, since only a moderate level of physiological excitement was observed at bedtime in these studies, it remains unclear whether a larger magnitude of physiologic excitement present at bedtime would disrupt sleep onset. This study compared the effects of pre-sleep exercise, which led to different levels of physiologic excitement at bedtime (moderate and heavy), on sleep onset.

Methods

Twelve active young men underwent non-exercise, moderate-intensity exercise, and high-intensity exercise conditions. The subjects maintained a sedentary condition on a reclining seat throughout the day. On the non-exercise day, the subjects remained seated at rest until going to bed. On the moderate- and high-intensity exercise days, the subject exercised for 40 min (21:20–22:00) at 60 and 80 % heart rate reserve, respectively. Sleep polysomnography, core body and skin temperatures, heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded.

Results

We observed a delay in sleep onset (+14.0 min, P < 0.05), a marked physiological excitement at bedtime as reflected by an increased HR (+25.7 bpm, P < 0.01), and a lower high-frequency power of HRV (−590 ms2, P < 0.01) only on the high-intensity exercise day.

Conclusions

These results indicate that pre-sleep vigorous exercise, which causes a large physiologic excitement at bedtime, might disrupt the onset of sleep.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

Bpm:

Beats min−1

CBT:

Core body temperature

EEG:

Electroencephalogram

EMG:

Electromyogram

EOG:

Electrooculogram

HE:

High-intensity exercise

HF:

High frequency

HR:

Heart rate

HRV:

Heart rate variability

ME:

Moderate-intensity exercise

NE:

Non-exercise

NREM:

Non-rapid eye movement

OSA:

Oguri–Shirakawa–Azumi

PSG:

Sleep polysomnography

REM:

Rapid eye movement

TV:

Television

VAS:

Visual analog scale

References

  • Agnew HW Jr, Webb WB, Williams RL (1966) The first night effect: an EEG study of sleep. Psychophysiology 2(3):263–266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alexandru G, Michikazu S, Shimako H, Xiaoli C, Hitomi K, Takashi Y, Robert WW, Sadanobu K (2006) Epidemiological aspects of self-reported sleep onset latency in Japanese junior high school children. J Sleep Res 15(3):266–275

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • American College Sports Medicine (2006) ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription, 7th edn. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnet MH, Arand DL (1992) Caffeine use as a model of acute and chronic insomnia. Sleep 15(6):526–536

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Browman CP, Tepas DI (1976) The effects of pre-sleep activity on all-night sleep. Psychophysiology 13:536–540

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buguet A, Cespuglio R, Radomski MW (1998) Sleep and stress in man: an approach through exercise and exposure to extreme environments. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 76:553–561

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bunnell DE, Bevier WC, Horvath SM (1983) Effects of exhaustive exercise on the sleep of men and women. Psychophysiology 20:50–58

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carrington M, Walsh M, Stambas T, Kleiman J, Trinder J (2003) The influence of sleep onset on the diurnal variation in cardiac activity and cardiac control. J Sleep Res 12:213–221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flausino NH, Da Silva Prado JM, de Queiroz SS, Tufik S, de Mello MT (2012) Physical exercise performed before bedtime improves the sleep pattern of healthy young good sleepers. Psychophysiology 49(2):186–192

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hauri P (1969) The influence of evening activity on the onset of sleep. Psychophysiology 5:426–430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Horne JA, Moore VJ (1985) Sleep EEG effects of exercise with and without additional body cooling. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 60:33–38

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Horne JA, Staff LHE (1983) Exercise and sleep: body heating effects. Sleep 6(1):36–46

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kern W, Perras B, Wodick R, Fehm HL, Born J (1995) Hormonal secretion during nighttime sleep indicating stress of daytime exercise. J Appl Physiol 79:1461–1468

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim K, Uchiyama M, Okawa M, Liu X, Ogihara R (2000) An epidemiological study of insomnia among the Japanese general population. Sleep 23(1):41–47

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kräuchi K, Cajochen C, Werth E, Wirz-Justice A (2000) Functional link between distal vasodilation and sleep-onset latency? Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 278:R741–R748

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathis JL (1978) Insomnia. J Fam Pract 6(4):873–876

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery I, Trinder J, Paxton S, Fraser G, Meaney M, Koerbin GL (1985) Sleep disruption following a marathon. J Sports Med Phys Fitness 25:69–74

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan WP, Costill DL, Flynn MG, Raglin JS, O’Connor PJ (1988) Mood disturbance following increased training in swimmers. Med Sci Sports Exerc 20(4):408–414

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morin CM, Gibson D, Wade J (1998) Self-reported sleep and mood disturbance in chronic pain patients. Clin J Pain 14(4):311–314

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy PJ, Campbell SS (1997) Nighttime drop in body temperature: a physiological trigger for sleep onset? Sleep 20:505–511

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Myllymäki T, Kyröläinen H, Savolainen K, Hokka L, Jakonen R, Juuti T, Martinmäki K, Kaartinen J, Kinnunen ML, Rusko H (2011) Effects of vigorous late-night exercise on sleep quality and cardiac autonomic activity. J Sleep Res 20:146–153

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Myllymäki T, Rusko H, Syväoja H, Juuti T, Kinnunen ML, Kyröläinen H (2012) Effects of exercise intensity and duration on nocturnal heart rate variability and sleep quality. Eur J Appl Physiol 112:801–809

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • National Sleep Foundation (2013) National Sleep Foundation 2013 Poll. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/2013poll. Accessed 6 Nov 2013

  • National Sleep Foundation (2013) Sleep hygiene. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/ask-the-expert/sleep-hygiene. Accessed 6 Nov 2013

  • O’Connor PJ, Breus MJ, Youngstedt SD (1998) Exercise-induced increase in core temperature does not disrupt a behavioral measure of sleep. Physiol Behav 64:213–217

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oda S (2006) Relationship between effect-size of exercise on sleep and exercise-induced physiological changes at bedtime. Bull Fac Educ, Hokkaido Univ 99:113–121 (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Oguri M, Shirakawa S, Azumi K (1985) Construction of standard rating scale to estimate sleep profile. Clin Psychiatr;Seishin Igaku 27:791–795 (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Okamoto-Mizuno K, Yamashiro Y, Tanaka H, Komada Y, Mizuno K, Tamaki M, Kitado M, Inoue Y, Shirakawa S (2008) Heart rate variability and body temperature during the sleep onset period. Sleep Biol Rhythm 6:42–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter JM, Horne JA (1981) Exercise and sleep behavior: a questionnaire approach. Ergonomics 24:511–521

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rechtschaffen A, Kales A (1968) A manual of standardized terminology, techniques and scoring system for sleep stages of human subjects. US Government Printing Office, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawada Y, Ohtomo N, Tanaka Y, Tanaka G, Yamakoshi K, Terachi S, Shimamoto K, Nakagawa M, Satoh S, Kuroda S, Iimura O (1997) New technique for time series analysis combining the maximum entropy method and non-linear least squares method: its value in heart rate variability analysis. Med Biol Eng Comput 35:318–322

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro CM, Bortz R, Mitchell D, Bartel P, Jooste P (1981) Slow-wave sleep: a recovery period after exercise. Science 214:1253–1254

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shioda K, Goto K, Uchida S (2012) The effect of acute high-intensity exercise on following night sleep. J Jpn Soc Clin Sports Med 20(2):306–315 (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirakawa K, Oda S (2007) The effects of pre-sleep exercise on sleep. Bull Asai Gakuen Univ, Sch Lifelong Learn Support Syst 7:221–232 (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamatakis E, Chaudhury M (2008) Temporal trends in adults’ sports participation patterns in England between 1997 and 2006: the Health Survey for England. Br J Sports Med 42(11):901–908

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steptoe A, Cox S (1988) Acute effects of aerobic exercise on mood. Health Psychol 7(4):329–340

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (1996) Heart rate variability: standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Circulation 93:1043–1065

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor SR, Rogers GG, Driver HS (1997) Effects of training volume on sleep, psychological, and selected physiological profiles of elite female swimmers. Med Sci Sports Exerc 29:688–693

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Torsvall L, Akerstedt T, Lindbeck G (1984) Effects on sleep stages and EEG power density of different degrees of exercise in fit subjects. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 57:347–353

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Uchida S, Shioda K, Morita Y, Kubota C, Ganeko M, Takeda N (2012) Exercise effects on sleep physiology. Front Neurol 3:48. doi:10.3389/fneur.2012.00048

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vuori I, Urponen H, Hasan J, Partinen M (1988) Epidemiology of exercise effects on sleep. Acta Physiol Scand (Suppl) 574:3–7

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Youngstedt SD (2005) Effects of exercise on sleep. Clin Sports Med 24:355–365

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Youngstedt SD, Kripke DF, Elliott JA (1999) Is sleep disturbed by vigorous late-night exercise? Med Sci Sports Exerc 31:864–869

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Academic Frontier, Project for Private Universities: matching fund and subsidy from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), 2004–2008.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shiro Oda.

Additional information

Communicated by William J. Kraemer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Oda, S., Shirakawa, K. Sleep onset is disrupted following pre-sleep exercise that causes large physiological excitement at bedtime. Eur J Appl Physiol 114, 1789–1799 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-2873-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-2873-2

Keywords

Navigation