Fei LL, Zhao SX, Chen YF, Hao CF, Xin YJ. Exercise and sleep health in college students: Efficacy, mechanisms, and implications for practice. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(10): 108884 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i10.108884]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yong-Juan Xin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, No. 100 Science Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China. yjxin@zzu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Behavioral Sciences
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Le-Le Fei, Shu-Xin Zhao, Ya-Fei Chen, Chang-Fu Hao, Yong-Juan Xin, Department of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Co-first authors: Le-Le Fei and Shu-Xin Zhao.
Author contributions: Fei LL and Zhao SX contribute equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors. Fei LL and Xin YJ contributed to the conceptualization; Fei LL participated in the data curation, formal analysis, and methodology; Fei LL, Zhao SX, and Chen YF wrote original draft; Zhao SX was involved in the investigation; Hao CF and Xin YJ contributed to the supervision and writing - review and editing; Xin YJ contributed to the project administration.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yong-Juan Xin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, No. 100 Science Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China. yjxin@zzu.edu.cn
Received: April 27, 2025 Revised: May 29, 2025 Accepted: July 21, 2025 Published online: October 19, 2025 Processing time: 154 Days and 4.4 Hours
Abstract
Sleep disorders are highly prevalent among college students, adversely affecting their physical health, psychological well-being, and academic outcomes. While pharmacotherapy remains a common intervention, its potential for dependency and adverse effects underscores the need for safer alternatives. Physical activity, characterized by accessibility and a favorable cost-effectiveness profile, has gained attention as a non-pharmacological intervention. However, the evidence regarding its efficacy and underlying mechanisms remains inadequately synthesized. This review evaluates the role of exercise in managing sleep disorders, highlighting evidence that aerobic, resistance, and mind-body exercises improve sleep quality, particularly through moderate-to-high-intensity sessions (40-60 minutes, 3 times per week), while emphasizing avoidance of exercise within 90 minutes of bedtime to prevent disruption. Long-term regular exercise typically yields better results. Mechanistically, exercise modulates sleep through circadian rhythm synchronization, psychological adjustment, anti-inflammatory actions, thermoregulation and neuroendocrine regulation. Despite promising evidence, methodological limitations persist, including heterogeneous outcome measures, short intervention durations, and restricted sample diversity. Future research should prioritize large-scale longitudinal investigations in randomized controlled trials that utilize standardized exercise protocols and objective sleep measurements. Collectively, exercise constitutes a multifactorial intervention for sleep disorder mitigation, offering personalized regimens that enhance both sleep parameters and overall quality of life.
Core Tip: Exercise is crucial for improving sleep because it enhances sleep quality and provides overall benefits for physical and mental health. This review looks at how exercise helps sleep by focusing on three main points: (1) How different types of exercise compare in effectiveness; (2) The science behind how exercise improves sleep; and (3) What current research is missing and what future studies should focus on. We found that aerobic exercise can really help with sleep, and combining different types of exercise works even better than just one type. Future research should try mixing exercise with other methods to find new ways to help college students sleep better. In short, exercise is a great way to improve sleep and overall health for college students.
