Background

Recurrently disrupted sleep is a widespread phenomenon in our society. This is worrisome as chronically impaired sleep increases the risk of numerous diseases that place a heavy burden on health services worldwide, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, cardiovascular disease, and dementia. Therefore, strategies mitigating the current societal sleep crisis are needed.

Scope of review

Observational and interventional studies have found that regular moderate to intensive exercise is associated with better subjective and objective sleep in humans, with and without pre-existing sleep disturbances. Here, we summarize recent findings from clinical studies in humans and animal experiments suggesting that molecules that are expressed, produced, and released by the skeletal muscle in response to exercise may contribute to the sleep-improving effects of exercise.

Major conclusions

Exercise-induced skeletal muscle recruitment increases blood concentrations of signaling molecules, such as the myokine brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been shown to increase the depth of sleep in animals. As reviewed herein, BDNF and other muscle-induced factors are likely to contribute to the sleep-promoting effects of exercise. Despite progress in the field, however, several fundamental questions remain. For example, one central question concerns the optimal time window for exercise to promote sleep. It is also unknown whether the production of muscle-induced peripheral factors promoting sleep is altered by acute and chronic sleep disturbances, which has become increasingly common in the modern 24/7 lifestyle.

中文翻译：

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运动诱发的外周因素在睡眠调节中的作用

 背景

经常性的睡眠中断是我们社会中的一种普遍现象。这是令人担忧的，因为长期睡眠不足会增加多种疾病的风险，这些疾病给全世界的卫生服务带来沉重负担，包括 2 型糖尿病、肥胖、抑郁、心血管疾病和痴呆。因此，需要采取缓解当前社会睡眠危机的策略。

 审查范围

观察性和介入性研究发现，无论是否存在预先存在的睡眠障碍，定期进行中度至高强度运动都与人类更好的主观和客观睡眠有关。在这里，我们总结了人类临床研究和动物实验的最新发现，表明骨骼肌响应运动而表达、产生和释放的分子可能有助于运动改善睡眠的效果。

 主要结论

运动引起的骨骼肌募集会增加信号分子的血液浓度，例如肌因子脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF），它已被证明可以增加动物的睡眠深度。正如本文所述，BDNF 和其他肌肉诱导因素可能有助于运动促进睡眠的效果。然而，尽管该领域取得了进展，但仍然存在一些基本问题。例如，一个核心问题涉及锻炼促进睡眠的最佳时间窗口。目前尚不清楚肌肉诱导的促进睡眠的外周因子的产生是否会因急性和慢性睡眠障碍而改变，这种睡眠障碍在现代 24/7 生活方式中变得越来越普遍。