3 Best Forms of Exercise to Ease Insomnia and Improve Sleep
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Insomnia affects about 22% of adults worldwide and raises the risk of depression, Alzheimer's disease, and cardiovascular events, while also draining energy, focus, and overall health
- A review of 22 clinical trials found yoga, tai chi, and walking to be the top three forms of exercise for improving sleep quality, duration, and efficiency in people with insomnia
- Walking stood out for reducing insomnia severity the most, and moderate-intensity walking is safe to repeat daily without the health risks linked to excessive vigorous exercise
- Yoga increased total sleep time by nearly two hours per night, while tai chi improved both subjective and objective sleep measures, with benefits lasting months or even years after training
- Benefits from walking and tai chi were seen in as little as four to 12 weeks, showing that consistent, moderate activity is more effective for long-term sleep improvement than intense, high-volume workouts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What if you could add up to two extra hours of sleep at night and ease daytime fatigue without medication, side effects, or high-intensity workouts? |
| 0:09.0 | Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. |
| 0:17.0 | No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights. |
| 0:22.9 | Hello and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. I'm Ethan Foster. Today we're focusing |
| 0:28.5 | on three accessible forms of movement that consistently improve insomnia, walking, yoga, |
| 0:34.2 | and Tai Chi. Insomnia affects about 22% of adults worldwide and is linked with a doubled |
| 0:40.5 | risk of depression, a 50% higher chance of Alzheimer's disease, and a 45% increase in cardiovascular |
| 0:48.1 | events. It drains energy, blurs focus, and chips away at long-term health. I'm Alara Sky. A review in BMJ evidence-based medicine examined 22 randomized controlled |
| 1:00.3 | trials with 1,348 adults who had insomnia or significant symptoms. Researchers compared 13 interventions, |
| 1:09.7 | including seven structured exercise approaches, against |
| 1:13.3 | active controls like usual care or stretching. |
| 1:16.6 | Three clearly stood out for improving sleep quality, duration, and efficiency, yoga, |
| 1:22.8 | Tai Chi, and walking. |
| 1:25.3 | Each delivered meaningful, measurable benefits beyond the general engagement you'd get from simple activity. |
| 1:31.3 | Walking reduced insomnia severity more than other activities. |
| 1:35.3 | On the insomnia severity index, scores dropped by an average of 9.6 points versus active controls, |
| 1:42.3 | signaling fewer nighttime awakenings, less trouble falling asleep, and reduce daytime fatigue. |
| 1:49.0 | Moderate intensity walking is safe to repeat daily. |
| 1:52.0 | An evidence from cardiologist James O'Keefe supports choosing steady, moderate activity over excessive vigorous exercise, |
| 1:59.0 | which can erase gains and elevate atrial fibrillation, |
| 2:02.6 | risk in middle-aged adults. Yoga produced the largest increases in total sleep time and strong |
| 2:08.9 | gains across key sleep metrics. Sleep diary data showed roughly 111 more minutes of nightly sleep, |
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