Evening exercise will not ruin sleep and might even reduce appetite

With growing time demands, many middle-aged adults are finding time to engage in exercise increasingly difficult. For many, even the thought of fitting exercise in after a busy day at work can be as tiring as it is unappetizing.

The standing belief that high-intensity exercise should be avoided in the early evening due to its effect on sleep only serves to act as another barrier to exercise at this time. However, encouraging new research published in Experimental Physiology has suggested that 30 minutes of high-intensity exercise performed in the early evening does not negatively affect subsequent sleep, and may also reduce feelings of hunger.

Researchers at Charles Sturt University in Australia recruited eleven middle-aged men to complete three experimental trials to investigate sleep and appetite responses to exercise performed in the morning (6 – 7 am), afternoon (2 – 4 pm) and evening (7 – 9 pm). Participants were required to perform high-intensity cycling involving six one-minute, maximal intensity sprints interspersed by four minutes of rest. Blood collections were taken prior to exercise and following exercise to examine appetite-related hormones, and multiple tests were performed during sleep to assess sleep stages.

The results not only showed that evening exercise did not have a detrimental impact on subsequent sleep, but also that afternoon and evening high-intensity exercise were associated with greater reductions of the hunger stimulating hormone, ghrelin. It is important to note that a single bout of exercise was not linked to reduced hunger, but nevertheless, the observations from this study support high-intensity exercise early in the evening as a viable time of day for exercise.

As this study’s sample size was relatively small, the findings extrapolated to other population groups beyond middle-aged men may be limited, given that sleep and appetite regulation are influenced by sex and age.

Penelope Larsen, lead author of the study commented, “In the future, we hope to conduct similar studies recruiting women, to determine whether sleep and appetite responses may be different depending on sex. Also, this study only considered a single bout of exercise; therefore, it would be beneficial to investigate long-term sleep and appetite adaptations to high-intensity exercise training performed either in the morning, afternoon or evening.”

Interestingly, power output during the sprint efforts was higher for the afternoon and evening trials compared to the morning trial, indicating that participants were able to perform better during latter parts of the day. Therefore, time-of-day may also need to be considered when planning training schedules.”

For the full paper, visit https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/EP087455. 

For additional information:

1. Experimental Physiology publishes advances in physiology which increase our understanding of how our bodies function in health and disease (http://ep.physoc.org).
2. The Physiological Society brings together more than 3,500 scientists from over 60 countries. The Society promotes physiology with the public and parliament alike. It supports physiologists by organizing world-class conferences and offering grants for research and also publishes the latest developments in the field in its three leading scientific journals, The Journal of Physiology, Experimental Physiology and Physiological Reports (www.physoc.org).