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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1529519
The effectiveness of exercise interventions in the improvement of sleep in elderly people: a meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 2 Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 3 Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China
Background: Sleep problems are prevalent among the elderly population, with a significant impact on their health and overall well-being. Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have yielded controversial results regarding the efficacy of exercise interventions in the improvement of sleep among elderly people. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to assess the influence of exercise interventions on sleep quality within this demographic. Methods: A search was conducted across four databases, namely Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and SportDiscus, in order to identify randomized controlled trials investigating exercise interventions and sleep in the elderly. The quality of the studies included was evaluated by two researchers according to the PEDro scale. Meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed utilizing RevMan 5.4 and Stata 17 software.Result: A total of fifty studies encompassing 3937 participants were included in the analysis.Regarding patient-reported sleep parameters, exercise interventions exhibited enhancements in sleep quality (WMD= -2.18, 95%CI: -2.83 to -1.53, p< 0.01) and reductions in insomnia severity (SMD= -0.52, 95%CI: -0.79 to -0.25, p< 0.01), albeit without significant improvements in daytime sleepiness (SMD= -0.66, 95%CI: -1.41 to 0.09, p= 0.09). In terms of clinician-reported sleep parameters, exercise interventions resulted in increased total sleep time (WMD= 8.98, 95%CI: 1.19 to 16.78, p< 0.05) and sleep efficiency (WMD= 3.66, 95%CI: 2.46 to 4.85, p< 0.01), and reduced wake time after sleep onset (WMD= -11.85, 95%CI: -15.58 to -8.11, p< 0.01), but did not decrease sleep onset latency (WMD= -3.05, 95%CI: -6.23 to 0.13, p= 0.06) or the number of awakenings during sleep (WMD= -0.73, 95%CI: -1.98 to 0.52, p= 0.25).Conclusion: Exercise interventions have demonstrated positive effects on enhancing sleep quality among the elderly population. This study lends support to the utilization of exercise interventions as a safe, feasible, and effective non-pharmacological treatment approach for enhancing sleep among older individuals. Registration: PROSPERO (No. CRD42024530227).
Keywords: Meta-analysis, Exercise, physical activity, Sleep, older people
Received: 17 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Geng, Li and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaogang Li, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, Sichuan Province, China
Guotao Sun, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China
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