The Effects of Exercise Timing, Intensity and Modality on Sleep Quality in Recreational Athletes: A Narrative Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/QS.2026.68.74220Keywords
sleep quality, ecreational athletes, exercise timing, exercise intensity, exercise modality, recovery, HRVAbstract
Background: Sleep is essential for recovery, health and functioning. Recreational athletes often train in the evening, but exercise effects on sleep depend on timing, intensity and modality.
Aim: To summarize how exercise timing, intensity and modality influence sleep quality in recreational athletes and physically active adults.
Materials and methods: A narrative review was conducted using PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. The analysis included 26 publications from 1978 to April 2026 on healthy adults aged 18–65 years, recreationally active individuals or non-professional athletes. Outcomes included sleep latency, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep architecture, HRV 2
and subjective sleep quality.
Results: Moderate-intensity exercise showed the most consistent favourable association with sleep, especially when regular and not too close to bedtime. Evening exercise was not automatically harmful; light and moderate sessions were usually well tolerated. Late high-intensity or high-load exercise was more often linked with delayed sleep onset, higher nocturnal heart rate, reduced HRV and altered sleep architecture.
Conclusions: Exercise may support sleep quality as a non-pharmacological recovery strategy. The most practical approach is individualized planning based on timing, intensity, modality, fitness level and recovery time before sleep.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Alicja Benecka, Aleksandra Blicharz , Wojciech Kozdraś, Gabriela Szewczyk, Elżbieta Bukowczan, Ewa Wiench, Alicja Zając, Magdalena Kloc, Bartosz Niciński, Damian Broda, Agnieszka Benecka
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