Can Light Therapy Improve Sleep and Mood After Workouts?

After a tough workout, you want to rest well and feel good the next day. But what if light could help you sleep better and lift your mood too? Light therapy is becoming a simple yet powerful way to boost recovery, improve sleep, and keep your energy high. Let’s find out how it works.

Can Light Therapy Improve Sleep and Mood After Workouts?

Light therapy can improve sleep and mood after workouts by regulating your circadian rhythm, boosting melatonin production, and reducing insomnia symptoms. It enhances sleep quality, restores daytime energy, and lifts mood by mimicking natural daylight. Additionally, it aids shift workers, jet lag recovery, and seasonal sleep disruptions, making it a simple, natural way to support post-exercise recovery and overall well-being.

Ways Light Therapy Improve Your Sleep

Regulates Your Circadian Rhythm

A well-regulated circadian rhythm acts like an internal clock, signaling your body when to feel awake and when to wind down for sleep. When this rhythm is in sync, falling asleep becomes easier, sleep is deeper, and you wake up feeling refreshed. Research shows that light exposure can strengthen this rhythm. For example, a study in San Diego nursing homes found that morning bright light made residents’ circadian rhythms more robust, improving activity patterns. Similarly, a review of 40 light therapy studies confirmed that proper light timing reduces sleep disturbances and helps reset delayed sleep schedules, highlighting light’s powerful role in better rest.

Boosts Melatonin Production

Light therapy boosts melatonin, signaling your body that it’s time to sleep. Bright white or blue-enriched light works best, and 20–30 minutes in the morning optimizes melatonin production. Morning exposure also improves nighttime melatonin release, keeping your sleep cycle on track. Light therapy can replace missing natural sunlight, and many people notice melatonin levels rise soon after a session, helping them fall asleep faster and wake up refreshed. Some fitness enthusiasts even try red light therapy in Planet Fitness as a convenient way to support their sleep and recovery routines.

Reduces Insomnia Symptoms

Reduced insomnia symptoms can help improve sleep by making it easier to stay asleep throughout the night, leading to more restorative rest and better mood the next day. Light therapy works by regulating your body’s internal clock, helping you fall asleep at the right time and reducing nighttime awakenings. One meta-analysis including 685 participants found that light therapy significantly improved wake after sleep onset, while another review of 1,154 participants reported it effectively eased insomnia symptoms. These studies suggest light therapy can be a natural, non-drug way to support better sleep.

Improves Sleep Quality

Light therapy works by using specific wavelengths of light to reset your body’s internal clock, helping regulate sleep-wake cycles and boost restorative sleep. Essentially, it signals your brain to produce hormones like melatonin at the right times, improving both how long and how well you sleep. Supporting this, a meta-analysis of shift workers found light therapy increased total sleep time and efficiency, while another study in cancer patients showed bright light therapy improved sleep quality, reduced night awakenings, and even eased fatigue. In short, light therapy can be a simple, effective way to sleep better.

Enhances Mood and Daytime Energy

Enhanced mood and daytime energy play a key role in improving sleep. When your mood is lifted and you feel more energized during the day, your body’s natural sleep-wake rhythm, or circadian rhythm, becomes more balanced, making it easier to fall asleep and enjoy restorative sleep at night. Light therapy can stimulate this effect by mimicking natural daylight, which helps synchronize your internal clock. Research shows that exposure to bright light not only improves vitality and reduces depressive symptoms in office workers during winter but also enhances overall well-being, even in those without seasonal mood changes.

Helps Shift Workers and Jet Lag Recovery

Jet lag recovery helps good sleep by realigning your internal clock with the natural day-night cycle, allowing your body to release sleep hormones at the right time and wake up feeling restored. According to Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, a jet lag study in mice found that carefully timed light during recovery stabilized circadian gene expression, showing how light therapy can support smoother sleep-wake rhythms for you.

Combats Seasonal Sleep Disruptions

Light therapy helps regulate sleep in winter by providing the bright light your body needs. Using it in the morning improves sleep quality and resets your circadian rhythm. It can prevent seasonal insomnia and ease sleep problems linked to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Regular light therapy also reduces daytime fatigue, helping you feel more alert during short, dark days.