A man lying awake in his bed. He can't sleep after exercising.

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Can’t Sleep After Exercising? Here’s Why—and 5 Things to Try

Knocking out a great evening workout doesn’t mean your snooze has to suffer.

By Anna MedarisJanuary 23, 2025

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You just crawled into bed after an evening jog or class, proud of yourself for getting active instead of folding into the couch after an already-long day. There’s just one problem: Now you can’t sleep after exercising.

While physical activity is overall good for sleep, working out too close to bedtime can make it tough for some people to get solid shut-eye. 

The answer, experts say, isn’t to stop exercising, of course. “It’s better to exercise at night if that’s the time that you can exercise than to not exercise at all when it comes to your sleep,” says David Kuhlmann, MD, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. 

But what can you do to stay active without sacrificing your Zzzs? Below, expert recommendations on how to get a good night’s rest after working out—plus intel on why, exactly, you may be struggling to fall asleep after exercising in the first place. 

Possible Reasons Why You Can’t Sleep After Exercising

Working out in the evening doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get a bad night of sleep, especially if you don’t exercise right before bedtime. 

In fact, one 2021 meta-analysis found that high-intensity exercise two to four hours before bed didn’t disrupt sleep in healthy adults. Another meta-analysis showed a nighttime sweat session boosted people’s time in slow-wave sleep, or the type of deep sleep tied to recovery. (In both studies, any potential negative effects on sleep were only noticed after vigorous workouts performed within an hour or so of bedtime.) 

Plus, everybody’s different. “There are people who can do it and fall right to sleep, just like some people can drink a cup of espresso before bed,” says Whitney Roban, PhD, a clinical psychologist, author, and founder of the sleep-training program Solve Our Sleep

But it’s understandable if you’re not one of them. On a physiological level, for one, workouts raise your heart rate and body temperature, while solid sleep requires a lower heart rate and lower body temperature. “In order for our body to produce melatonin, which is known as the sleep hormone, our body temperature has to drop before we go to bed,” Roban says. That’s why she typically advises people to avoid going to bed within two hours of their workout.

How exercise affects your mind—while a net positive—can also be at odds with your desire for a good snooze in the moment. “Our body releases endorphins while we work out, which is that feeling of euphoria or that runner’s high, and that’s great when you’re working out,” Roban says. “But you don’t want to have all that energy and then try to fall asleep right away.” 

More practical factors could be at play too: Things like exercise-induced muscle soreness can keep you awake, Roban adds. So can a big post-workout meal. One study, for instance, found that people who ate or drank within an hour of bedtime were more likely to wake up throughout the night and, the authors hypothesize, sleep longer to compensate for their spotty sleep.

“Sleep is supposed to be the time when your digestive system is getting a break, and feeding it a lot before bed isn’t ideal,” says Dr. Kuhlmann, who’s board-certified in psychiatry and neurology as well as sleep medicine.

There’s also the possibility of a sleep disorder unrelated to your fitness routine, Dr. Kuhlmann says. Sleep apnea, for one, causes you to momentarily stop breathing while asleep, and goes undiagnosed in an estimated 85–90 percent of cases, the Cleveland Clinic says. That includes active people, says Dr. Kuhlmann, a marathoner who has the condition. 

“If you’re exercising the way that you should and feel like you’re doing everything right and still waking up not feeling refreshed by adequate sleep duration, or you’re still having a lot of sleep fragmentation, you really might want to consider getting looked at,” he says.

How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep After a Late Workout

If you’re struggling to sleep after evening exercise, the most obvious—though not always possible—solution is to exercise earlier. While the best time to exercise is the time you’ll stick to, there are added perks for morning movement if you can swing it, Roban says. “When you exercise in the morning, it really helps you reset your circadian rhythm for the day, especially if you can get outside and do that in the sunlight,” she says.

Maybe you can’t change when you work out, but you can change the types of activities you reserve for after dark. “Within the category of exercise, I recommend stretching, yoga, meditation, deep breathing, rather than high intensity close to bed,” Roban says. (You can find guided classes across all of those modalities on the Peloton App, by the way.)

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But if late-night, relatively vigorous exercise is what works for your fitness goals and schedule, experts suggest the following to make sleep a bit easier: 

1. Help Your Body Wind Down 

Fitness enthusiasts or not, Roban encourages everyone to practice deep breathing or some related practice before bed. “Anything that’s going to slow down your mind and slow down your body” can do the trick, she says. 

The Peloton App has thousands of breathwork and meditation classes (including ones designed for evenings and sleep) that can help you achieve that post-workout calm before hitting the hay.

2. Take a Hot Shower 

Perhaps counterintuitively, Dr. Kuhlmann says, a hot shower can encourage your body to cool down more quickly. “The way that our body cools off, the way we lose body heat, is through the palms of our hands and soles of our feet,” he says. “And actually heating your extremities during a shower helps to facilitate heat loss, which helps to promote sleep.”

3. Maintain a Nightly Routine 

To an extent, you can train your body to prepare for rest if you follow the same calming ritual night after night. That might mean journaling, washing your face, and lighting a candle—not doom-scrolling or watching Netflix until the moment you turn off the light, Roban says. 

“If you’re going to do that late-day workout, it’s even more important that you take an hour to do your routine,” she says. “If you do it every day, the second you start doing it, your brain and body are going to know it’s time to go to sleep, even though maybe your heart rate is faster or your body temperature is up.” 

4. Plan Your Meals Accordingly 

Rather than capping off your evening workout with a greasy burger and beer, aim to have your biggest meal of the day earlier. Then, to refuel after your workout, pick a sleep-promoting snack like almonds and a banana or whole-wheat crackers and cheese, Roban suggests. Try to avoid anything spicy or that might otherwise cause digestive distress like acid reflux, Dr. Kuhlmann adds.

5. Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

Your typical sleep hygiene advice—like sleeping in a cool, dark room; avoiding alcohol and caffeine before bed; and minimizing your evening screen time—is especially important if you’re trying to counteract some of the potential effects of nighttime exercise on sleep. “Those things really do make a difference in whether you’re gonna get good sleep or not,” Roban says. 

The Takeaway 

In general, exercise is good for sleep, and good sleep supports better exercise habits and recovery. It’s cyclical, Roban says. “There are many benefits to exercising and a lot of them are related to sleep. We eat healthier while we’re exercising, and nutrition is tied to sleep as well,” she says. 

But many people can’t sleep after exercising too close to bedtime. That’s in part because workouts raise both heart rate and body temperature, which isn’t conducive to drifting off easily. Plus, later-day exercisers may feel uncomfortable from sore muscles or a hearty post-workout meal. 

If you’re committed to your evening workouts, though, prioritizing proper sleep hygiene and practicing a regular wind-down routine (like taking a hot shower, stretching, and doing some deep breathing) can coax your body into sleepiness more easily.

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This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute individualized advice. It is not intended to replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment. Seek the advice of your physician for questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. If you are having a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.

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