Effects of acute exercise or short-term exercise interventions on metabolic markers during experimentally-induced sleep loss in humans: A systematic literature review.
Level 1 - systematic review of randomized trials
Systematic review of intervention studies appraised with Cochrane RoB 2.0
PubMed 40280326 · doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2025.101044
What was done
A systematic review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines searched six databases (PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane) up to June 2024. Eligible studies evaluated adult humans undergoing experimentally induced acute or short-term (<14 days) sleep loss who completed acute or short-term exercise interventions, measuring glucose and insulin concentrations, insulin sensitivity, skeletal muscle gene expression, and other molecular markers. Study quality was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool.
What was found
Twelve studies comprising 177 total participants met inclusion criteria out of 4,026 screened records. Sleep protocols ranged from one night of total sleep deprivation to 5 consecutive nights of 4-hour sleep opportunities. Exercise interventions varied across modalities (walking, running, cycling, resistance training), volumes (minutes to hours), and intensities (low-intensity to maximum efforts). The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes or meta-analytic estimates, but indicates that most studies found insufficient sleep impaired glucose and insulin concentrations and mitochondrial adaptations, while exercise mitigated these negative metabolic effects.
Why it matters
This review synthesizes human experimental data demonstrating that acute or short-term exercise can counter short-term metabolic dysregulation caused by sleep deprivation.
Limits
The total sample across all 12 included studies was small (177 participants, averaging ~15 per study). Protocols showed substantial heterogeneity in sleep loss duration and exercise modality, volume, and intensity. Chronic sleep restriction, long-term exercise adaptations, and diverse clinical populations were not evaluated, and no pooled quantitative effect sizes were provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports High-intensity interval training or exercise can acutely offset the insulin resistance and inflammation caused by poor sleep.