Aim Previous literature has shown that leisure time physical activities were associated with better sleep. The aim of this study is to further explore the effects of leisure-time aerobic exercise and muscle-strength activity on sleep duration. Subjects and methods Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult Public Use File are analyzed. Age, gender, region, race, smoking, drinking, stress and anxiety are considered as potential confounders. Univariate and multivariate multinomial logistic regression models are fitted to estimate the effects of aerobic exercise and muscle-strength activity on sleep duration. Results A total of 24,190 adults were eligible for our study. 6.7 % of them sleep 5 h/day or fewer, 27.6 % sleep 9 h/day or more, only 65.9 % sleep 7 or 8 h/day. In the fully adjusted models, reference to the lowest level of aerobic exercise quartiles (P-75 are 0.72 (95 %CI: 0.59-0.86), 0.66 (95 %CI: 0.55-0.79) and 0.60 (95 %CI: 0.49-0.74) for sleeping= 9 h, respectively. The fully adjusted models of muscle-strength activity show that compared with lowest level of muscle-strength activity, the ORs of excessive muscle-strength activity for sleeping= 9 h are 1.52 (95 %CI: 1.16-2.01) and 1.32 (95 %CI: 1.00-1.72). Conclusion Our findings suggest that high levels of leisure-time aerobic exercise play a protective role in healthy sleep, while the excessive muscle-strength activity might increase the risk of both extremely short and long sleep durations.