Exercise Intervention on Insomnia in Patients with a Cancer: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Simple Summary Insomnia is a frequent sleep disorder complaint in cancer patients during and after treatment, and exercise was suggested as a useful non-pharmacological treatment. However, the lack of definitions and the high variability of insomnia measurement tools in the literature do not allow for a clear consensus. This is the first systematic review to evaluate the effects of exercise focused only on insomnia in the cancer population, during and/or after treatment. This systematic review shows significant improvement of better-quality sleep in three of the nine included studies, especially in patients with insomnia at baseline. Less insomnia is associated with aerobic exercise and/or strength training at moderate intensity.Abstract Cancer is associated with increased muscle weakness, reduced physical functioning, increased fatigue, but also sleep disturbances, including insomnia, that affect quality of life (QoL). Physical activity demonstrated benefits on functional capacity, resilience and cancer-related fatigue, but there is a paucity of available data regarding its effects on insomnia in patients with cancer. This systematic review aims to examine the efficacy of exercise levels with insomnia in cancer patients. A systematic search was performed for articles published in PubMed and Cochrane Library databases from December 2013 to February 2023. Included studies explored insomnia during or after cancer treatment, with various exercise interventions. The search identified nine studies included in this review. Due to substantial heterogeneity in the interventions across studies, meta-analysis was not performed. Three studies reported positive results for insomnia reduction by self-reported outcomes under a supervised aerobic exercise program alone or combined with strength training. The present systematic review establishes the role of exercise interventions for reducing cancer-related insomnia. Further studies are indeed warranted to improve the level of evidence for exercise interventions for implementation in the care of cancer-related insomnia.