SynthesisFrontiers in public health2026
Effects of different intervention modalities combined with exercise in patients with insomnia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Exercise, as a non-pharmacological intervention, is a promising adjunct for improving sleep outcomes in insomnia. However, a comprehensive assessment of exercise-based combination interventions remains insufficient. This study aimed to systematically evaluate and rank the intervention effects of different modalities combined with exercise on sleep outcomes via network meta-analysis (NMA). Methods: Following the population, intervention, comparator, outcome, and study design (PICOS) framework, literature was searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, and CQVIP for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) until March 20, 2026. Independent screening and data extraction were conducted. NMA utilized a frequentist framework, with risk of bias assessed by the Cochrane RoB 2 tool and evidence certainty assessed by CINeMA. Results: A total of 31 RCTs involving 2,457 participants were included, evaluating five types of exercise-based combination interventions. Results based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) indicated: (1) Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): exercise plus cognitive behavioral therapy (EX + CBT) > qigong plus CBT (QG + CBT) > exercise plus traditional Chinese medicine interventions (EX + TCM) > qigong plus TCM interventions (QG + TCM) > exercise (EX) > TCM > conventional control (CON) > qigong (QG); (2) sleep onset latency (SOL): EX + CBT > QG + TCM > QG plus active repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (QG + ArTMS) > QG + CBT > EX > CON > EX + TCM > QG plus sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (QG + SrTMS); (3) total sleep time (TST): EX + TCM > EX > QG + SrTMS > QG + ArTMS > EX + CBT > CON > QG + TCM > QG + CBT; (4) wake after sleep onset (WASO): EX + CBT > QG + ArTMS > QG + SrTMS > CON > EX > EX + TCM. Compared with CON, EX + CBT showed significant effects on PSQI, SOL, and WASO, whereas no intervention significantly increased TST. Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that exercise-based combination interventions may improve subjective sleep quality and selected sleep-continuity parameters in insomnia. Of these, EX + CBT appears to be the most consistently supported combination, with advantages for PSQI, SOL, and WASO. However, evidence certainty was generally limited. For other exercise-based combination interventions, further validation in large, high-quality trials is warranted. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251125784, identifier CRD420251125784.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.