BACKGROUND: This review aims to investigate the efficacy of Tai Chi Chuan on subjective sleep quality among adults. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and the Wanfang Database from their inception to August 2019 and identified 25 eligible studies that were published in both English and Chinese. RESULTS: 24 out of 25 studies were identified to be high-quality studies according to the PEDro scale. The pooled results confirmed that Tai Chi Chuan elicited moderate improvements in subjective sleep quality (SMD -0.512, 95% CI -0.767 to -0.257, p < 0.001). Notably, Tai Chi Chuan yielded more significant effects on sleep quality among the healthy population (SMD -0.684, 95% CI -1.056 to -0.311, p < 0.001) than the clinical population (SMD -0.395, 95% CI -0.742 to -0.047, p = 0.026) and more benefits among the Asian population (SMD -0.977, 95% CI -1.446 to -0.508, p < 0.001) than the American population (SMD -0.259, 95% CI -0.624 to 0.105, p = 0.164). After controlling the methodological quality of studies, it has been noted that Asians could achieve the most significant sleep-promoting benefit when Tai Chi Chuan was practiced between 60 and 90 min per session. CONCLUSIONS: Available data implied that subjective sleep quality was improved via Tai Chi training, but more thorough studies must be executed to ascertain our findings and optimize Tai Chi practices accordingly toward various populations.

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