How Evening Workouts Impact Sleep Quality

There are lots of gym myths, and one of them centers around evening workouts making it more difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Even some sleep researchers accept this assumption. A study from Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport at ETH Zurich suggests otherwise.

After researchers analyzed the findings of 23 studies, they concluded that intense training 4 hours before going to bed does not have a negative effect on sleep quality. In fact, subjects who participated in evening sports spent 21.2% of their time sleeping in a deep state. Overall, the deep sleep average is 19.9%.

One exception might be intense training within an hour of going to bed. Researchers suggested this might be the only example of evening exercise negatively impacting sleep quality. Training that close to bedtime can delay the time it takes to fall asleep.