Resistance training is the right way to tire your brain and body for better sleep, according to a study

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Want better sleep in your older years? Time to grab some weights.

Exercise, but particularly those workouts that incorporate resistance to improve muscular strength, can be helpful for older adults with insomnia, according to a new study.

Insomnia can be a big problem, especially as you get older.

“Between 30% and 48% of seniors complain of sleepiness, while 12–20% have insomnia problems,” said the authors in the study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Family Medicine and Community Health.

And sleeplessness has been linked to conditions including depression, anxiety and metabolic syndromes, the study added.

The research was a meta-analysis that looked at 25 studies between 1996 and 2021. The analysis investigated exercise and sleep data from 2,170 people who were at least 60 years old, according to the research.

“The outcomes of this study indicate that strengthening exercise is the most efficacious among others, followed by aerobic exercise and combination exercise,” the authors wrote. “Nevertheless, all these types of exercise improve sleep quality.”

Why resistance training works

When it comes to giving advice on how to get the best sleep, a meta-analysis-style study has both strengths and weaknesses, said Dr. Jade Wu, a sleep psychologist and founder of Thrive Sleep Clinic in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the research.

The researchers aggregated data from many studies, ending up with a larger pool of people, so the results are less likely to be biased or a fluke, she said. But because each study has a different methodology, it’s difficult to get specific on the exact impact each exercise has on sleep.

However, it would make sense that older adults who do resistance training would sleep better, Wu said.

“Sleep is essentially recovery for wear and tear on the body that has occurred during the day,” she said. “Resistance training puts literal wear and tear on muscles, so sleep is needed to repair and grow those muscles.

“Learning new movements also builds new pathways in the brain and encourages sleep, because we rehearse new things we learn during certain stages of sleep. In short, resistance training very effectively ‘earns’ sleep,” Wu said.

Resistance exercise has also been shown in previous studies to reduce blood pressure, improve blood sugar, improve cholesterol, increase leg strength, reduce depression and anxiety, and improve quality of life, added Dr. Shalini Paruthi via email. Paruthi is an adjunct professor at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and sleep medicine attending physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center, also in St. Louis. She was not involved in the study.

That said, it might not be the kind of exercise you are doing that makes the difference for insomnia, but more so if you can find a form that you can do consistently, said Dr. Rachel Salas, sleep neurologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness in Columbia, Maryland. She was not involved in the research.

“Resistance training may be a good option for many people, because it’s not intense. There’s not a risk of falling,” she said. “There are caveats that we think about in older adults.”

Paruthi added that as long as you are getting activity, you should see improvement in your sleep.

“Exercise works out the mind just as much as it works out the body, and this has a positive effect on improving the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, as well as sleep quality,” she said.

How to get to sleep

Insomnia isn’t a problem reserved for older adults, Paruthi said. Most people will likely find themselves having difficulty with sleep in some or many periods of their life.

Exercise is one of many strategies you can focus on to improve your sleep.

“There are several strategies to start with, the first being to make sure the environment is conducive to sleep, ie dark, quiet, cool bedroom and electronics put away 30-60 minutes before turning off the lights,” Paruthi said via email.

Sticking with a schedule also can help regulate your circadian rhythm, or internal biological 24-hour clock, Salas added.

“We always talk to patients about having a consistent bedtime and a consistent waking time, but I tend to go even further and really encourage patients to eat a consistent time and exercise at consistent times on a daily basis,” she said.

Light stretching before bed can be a great idea to relax stiff muscles and signal to your body that it’s time to wind down, she added.

Some sleep problems might indicate a medical problem, such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome, Paruthi said.

“If sleep continues to be a problem after 2 weeks, it is important to seek out the advice of your primary care physician or seek out a board certified sleep physician who can help you figure out what is going on with your sleep and recommend appropriate effective, evidence-based treatments,” she said in an email.

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