There is a literature that has done

use of sleeping pills in good sleepers too

and we see

I don't want to blame of this too much

but the bottom-line is that

exercise actually compares favorably with increasing total sleep time

decreasing sleep latency

well, it doesn't improve not as much as sleeping pills

Now of course we can extrapolate to say

that exercise is gonna be just helpful for

as sleeping pills on someone who has a sleep problem

But it's an interesting thing that it should be assessed

and there is increasing evidence

over particularly the last couple of decades

indicating that exercise does have a nice effect and a greater effect

in people who have sleep problems

Here are just some data

Abby King and colleagues at Stanford back a study in 97

16 weeks of exercise

4 times a week

fairly vigorous intensity

resulted in a nice decrease in sleep latency

compared to the controlled condition

had also improved their sleep duration

Kathy Reid at Northwestern just last year reported

that 16 weeks of exercise had a nice improvement

in the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index

compared to the non-exercise controlled

also reduced their depression

It reduced their levels of sleepiness