Qigong for Sleep: What Studies Show

What did the studies look at?

Qigong combines slow movement, breathing and focused attention. Most of these trials use the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a questionnaire where people rate their own sleep over the past month.[3] It runs from 0 to 21, lower is better, and a score above 5 marks poor sleep.[3]

Study	Who	Compared with	Result
2025 review, 15 trials	1,074 adults 60 and older	Mostly usual care or medication	PSQI 2.47 points lower (from 14 trials, 1,027 people), low certainty.[1]
2024 review, 10 trials of Baduanjin	789 older adults with insomnia	Control groups	PSQI 2.20 points lower.[4]
2022 review, 13 trials	1,147 adults with or without illness	Various	Effect size 0.96, or 0.42 without one outlier.[5]
2019 review, 49 trials, only 4 on qigong alone, 2 on qigong plus tai chi	4,506 people, also in yoga, tai chi, meditation	Various	Better sleep quality, no clear change in sleep duration.[6]

An effect size puts different questionnaires on one scale: the further from zero, the bigger the gap between groups.

What the numbers mean:

2025 review: On the scale up to 21, the qigong groups rated their sleep about 2.5 points better than the comparison groups.[1]
2024 review: In older adults with insomnia, the gap was similar, at just over 2 points.[4]
2022 review: Without the outlier, the authors describe the effect as small.[5]
2019 review: People rated their sleep as better, but measured sleep time did not clearly change.[6]

In the 2025 review, Baduanjin, also called the Eight Brocades, showed a 2.89-point gap. Wuqinxi, another routine, showed no clear difference.[1] So the gap for the Eight Brocades was a little larger than the average, and for Wuqinxi none could be shown.[1] Results varied a great deal between trials.[1]

What do the studies not show?

That people sleep longer. The 2019 review, pooling meditation, tai chi, qigong and yoga, found no clear effect on measures from sleep diaries or devices, such as total sleep time.[6] The PSQI captures how people feel they slept.
That the trials were clean. Of the 15 trials in the 2025 review, 14 carried some risk of bias, and 8 of those a high risk.[1] Only one compared qigong with another form of exercise.[1]
That qigong itself makes the difference. Half the trials in the 2022 review had no active comparison group, and the authors say part of the effect may be nonspecific.[5]
That the results apply to everyone. Of those 15 trials, 14 were run in China and one in Thailand, and only 3 focused on people whose main problem was poor sleep.[1]
That 10 minutes at bedtime is enough. Programs ran 25 to 60 minutes a day, 2 to 7 times a week, for 2 to 26 weeks.[1] These reviews can't tell you whether a short routine or "sleeping qigong" before bed changes how fast you fall asleep.

An earlier review of Baduanjin for insomnia was retracted by its journal in 2023, so it isn't used here.[7]

The American College of Physicians recommends that all adults with chronic insomnia get cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the initial treatment, a strong recommendation on moderate-quality evidence.[2] In CBT-I, you work on the thoughts and habits that keep you awake. NCCIH, the federal center for complementary health, calls it the most strongly recommended treatment for insomnia.[8] Its sleep page doesn't mention qigong.[8] On tai chi, it says several studies suggest better sleep quality, particularly in older adults.[8] The current VA and Department of Defense guideline, from 2025, names qigong directly: it finds insufficient evidence to recommend for or against qigong, tai chi or yoga for chronic insomnia and rates its confidence in that evidence as very low. The panel did not run a new systematic review on this point.[9]

A PubMed search in November 2026 turned up no finished head-to-head trial of qigong against CBT-I for insomnia. One with 348 planned participants in Shanghai has published its protocol, and no results appeared in that search.[10]

The closest evidence is a tai chi trial in the BMJ with 200 adults 50 and older in Hong Kong. At 3 months, insomnia scores had dropped far more with CBT-I (11.19 versus 6.67 points). At 15 months tai chi was about as good as CBT-I (10.18 versus 9.51 points).[11] So CBT-I was about 4.5 points ahead at 3 months, and less than a point separated the groups at 15 months.[11] That applies to tai chi and can't simply be carried over to qigong. Here is how qigong and tai chi differ.

When should you see a doctor?

Qigong doesn't replace medical treatment, and new or severe symptoms belong with a doctor. Talk to a health care provider if poor sleep keeps going and affects your days. If you snore loudly, a bed partner notices gasping or snorting at night, or you fight off daytime sleepiness, say so, because it could point to sleep apnea.[8] Please don't stop a prescribed sleep medication on your own.

How can you try qigong safely?

NCCIH says qigong appears to be a safe form of activity, and also warns against using it to put off seeing a provider about a medical problem.[12] If your doctor has no concerns, a gentle trial is reasonable. Think of it as something you enjoy, separate from any insomnia care.

The Eight Brocades are the most studied style.[1] For an easier start, try the short qigong for beginners routine, which you can also do in the evening.
Practice over several weeks and notice for yourself whether anything shifts. These reviews don't say which time of day is best.
A teacher can help you learn the movements, so see how to find a qigong class.
Read who should be careful with qigong before you begin.

Qigong for sleep: what studies show and what they don't

What did the studies look at?

What do the studies not show?

When should you see a doctor?

How can you try qigong safely?

Sources

What did the studies look at?

What do the studies not show?

How does qigong compare with what doctors usually recommend?

When should you see a doctor?

How can you try qigong safely?

Sources