The effect of daily aerobic cycling exercise on sleep quality during inpatient cannabis withdrawal: A randomised controlled trial

Sleep disturbance is a common symptom encountered by cannabis-dependent individuals abstaining from cannabis use. In the present study, we investigated the effect of daily aerobic cycling exercise versus control stretching on sleep quality during inpatient cannabis withdrawal in treatment-seeking dependent cannabis users. The protocol incorporated three consecutive phases: a 4-Day (4-Night) (at-home) 'Baseline' phase, a 6-Day (5-Night) 'Treatment' phase (within a 7-Day inpatient hospital stay) and a 3-Day (4-Night) (at-home) 'Post-Treatment' phase. Participants performed 35 min of monitored activity per day during the Treatment phase. The intervention group (n = 19) cycled at similar to 60% aerobic capacity (VO2max), while the control group (n = 12) performed a stretching routine. Objective sleep quality was measured nightly throughout the study using wrist actiography; ratings of subjective sleep quality were also recorded during the Treatment phase. There were no group differences in sleep measures during the Baseline phase (allp > .05).Objective sleep onset latencyincreased from the Baseline to the Treatment phase in the control (stretching) group (p = .042). In contrast, the Cycling group exhibited improvements insleep duration(p = .008) andsleep efficiency(p = .023) during the Treatment phase compared to the Baseline phase. Cycling also increasedsleep duration(p = .005), decreasedaverage wake bout(p = .040) and tended to increasesleep efficiency(p = .051) compared to stretching during the Treatment phase. Subjective sleep quality ratings did not differ between groups (p > .10). These preliminary findings suggest that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may attenuate the sleep disturbances associated with cannabis withdrawal.