{"id":811602,"date":"2026-07-19T05:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T05:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811602\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T05:56:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T05:56:29","slug":"how-much-you-need-to-exercise-for-better-sleep-according-to-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811602\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much You Need to Exercise for Better Sleep, According to Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever notice how some workouts<\/a> put you to sleep while others make you feel like someone switched out your vitamins<\/a> for caffeine pills? You\u2019re not going crazy. Exercise can significantly impact your sleep\u2014for better or for worse\u2014depending on how, and when, you work out.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the exercise-sleep relationship is not as straightforward as the internet\u2019s sleepmaxxers might lead you to believe. While research has unlocked some valuable insights that you can start putting into practice later tonight, there\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t know. “Part of what’s vexing about this is we don’t have the mechanism totally locked down,\u201d says James Wyatt, PhD, clinical sleep disorder specialist at Rush University System for Health<\/a> in Chicago.<\/p>\n

“It’s also important to caveat that, while the data is enormously helpful, there’s so much intra-individual variability,\u201d says Kristen Holmes, PhD, global head of human performance and principal scientist at Whoop<\/a>. At the end of the day (literally), sleep is a complex chemical equation that differs to various degrees from person to person.<\/p>\n

But back to those valuable insights. From morning HIIT workouts<\/a> that reset your circadian rhythm to an evening workout to hack your body\u2019s natural cooling system, here are some of the best ways to use exercise to fall asleep faster<\/a>, according to experts.<\/p>\n

Working out in general won\u2019t make you fall asleep faster<\/p>\n

Exercise can certainly reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, but not for the reason that many wellness influencers<\/a> would have you think\u2014that is, by spurring your body\u2019s natural production of adenosine, a sleep-inducing compound that is also a byproduct of exercise.<\/p>\n

Your body\u2019s cells rely on a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, for energy. It\u2019s a universal fuel source that powers everything from muscle contractions to brain function to simply existing. As ATP is utilized, it produces a compound called adenosine. Adenosine is not a waste product. In fact, it is highly valuable. \u201cIn muscle, adenosine helps to reduce inflammation<\/a> and limit damage during periods of metabolic stress,\u201d says Dr. Holmes. Meanwhile, in the brain, adenosine accumulates throughout the day, gradually making you feel sleepier. \u201cIn sleep science, this is called \u2018sleep pressure,\u2019\u201d says Dr. Holmes.<\/p>\n

So it seems perfectly plausible that the key to falling asleep faster would simply be to exercise. More exertion equals more adenosine and therefore greater sleep pressure. A 2007 study<\/a> published in the journal Neuroscience actually found that when rats engaged in intense exercise, the levels of adenosine in their brains increased significantly.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not how it works in humans. “Adenosine can do an awful lot of different things in the brain and in the body, but we have to separate these,\u201d says Dr. Wyatt. This is because adenosine doesn\u2019t cross the blood-brain barrier\u2014the wrapping around your brain that selectively allows certain chemicals in and not others. \u201cIf you build up adenosine in your body as a byproduct of exercising, that will not influence what happens in your brain,\u201d Dr. Wyatt says. \u201cThat adenosine doesn’t make it into the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, adenosine is still crucial for sleep in humans. “Adenosine on its own is one of the major chemicals that helps us fall asleep at night and get deep sleep for the first couple of hours,\u201d Dr. Wyatt says. But only adenosine that is created in the brain will ultimately contribute to increasing sleep pressure.<\/p>\n

The timing of your workout may be more important than the duration<\/p>\n

In terms of how hard or how long you need to work out in order to fall asleep faster, experts aren\u2019t entirely sure of this, or if it even matters all that much. “We don’t have a lot of great data on the intensity of exercise that’s needed,\u201d says Dr. Wyatt. The main reason for this, it seems, is that exercise\u2019s ability to improve sleep is likely not a direct function of intensity\u2014or any single factor, for that matter\u2014but rather a combination of variables, including timing. For example, working out at a high intensity could be helpful in the morning, but detrimental later on in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever notice how some workouts put you to sleep while others make you feel like someone switched out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84,51617,12365],"class_list":["post-811602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-life-advice","tag-working-out"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}