Evidence library · Sleep

Does resistance training affect sleep in menopause? What 9 studies found

Studies of resistance training in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured sleep. 7 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A review of 6 studies including postmenopausal women found that yoga, tai chi, resistance and aerobic exercise improved subjective sleep quality and reduced insomnia severity.

    Reported an improvementMeta-analysis · 295 participants pooled · 2022Midlife womenCited 17 timesPubMed

  2. A systematic review of 13 RCTs with 1,470 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women found aerobic exercise, yoga, Pilates, resistance training, stretching and relaxation improved sleep quality and psychological wellbeing.

    Reported an improvementSystematic review · 1,470 participants pooled · 2025Midlife womenCited 2 timesPubMed

  3. Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors did 3 months of walking plus resistance band training; fatigue effect sizes were small and not statistically significant, with inflammatory markers mediating change.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 46 women · 12 weeks · 2014PostmenopausalCited 70 timesPubMed

  4. Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors did 3 months of walking and resistance band training; the exercise group reported fewer hours of sleep per night versus control, mediated by inflammation and fatigue.

    Reported a worseningRandomised trial · 46 women · 12 weeks · 2015PostmenopausalCited 47 timesPubMed

  5. Postmenopausal women with daily hot flushes did resistance training three times weekly for 15 weeks and reported improved menopause-specific quality of life, including vasomotor and sleep domains, versus controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 65 women · 15 weeks · 2022PostmenopausalCited 21 timesPubMed

  6. Perimenopausal women received education, diet guidance, or diet plus resistance exercise for 3 months; all groups reduced climacteric symptom scores, with the combined group showing broad symptom improvement.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 78 women · 12 weeks · 2022PerimenopausalCited 10 timesPubMed

  7. Perimenopausal women did six weeks of high-intensity resistance training with or without creatine; creatine was linked to higher sleep consistency and prefrontal oxygenation gains versus placebo.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 51 women · 6 weeks · 2026PerimenopausalPubMed

  8. Two postmenopausal women with insomnia did twice-weekly stretching, strengthening and relaxation sessions for 6 months and both reported improved sleep measures on polysomnography.

    Reported an improvementBefore-and-after study · 2 women · 26 weeks · 2008PostmenopausalCited 17 timesPubMed

  9. A review described how regular physical activity including aerobic exercise, resistance training and yoga in midlife women supports cognition, sleep, mood and reduces chronic disease risk.

    Reported an improvementOther · 2025Midlife womenCited 1 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

Other exercise types and sleep