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Background Cardiopulmonary problems will increase the risk of health harms yet they are often neglected in clinical rehabilitation treatment for stroke patients. In addition, sleep problems also often affect the rehabilitation effect in these patients, while routine drug treatment could not achieve satisfactory effect. Objective To assess the effect of precisely prescribed exercise on cardiopulmonary fitness and sleep quality in stroke patients. Methods Sixty-four stroke inpatients were recruited from Rehabilitation Department, Changzhou Dean Hospital from April 2020 to August 2021, and equally randomized into a control group and an experimental group. At baseline, cardiopulmonary fitness was assessed using cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) , and sleep quality was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for both groups. Then control group received 12-week routine rehabilitation training, while experimental group received 12-week routine rehabilitation training plus aerobic exercise precisely prescribed based on baseline CPET parameters. Intra- and inter-group comparisons were made between pre- and post-training major CPET parameters, dyspnea and leg fatigue measured by the Borg Scale and sleep quality. Results At the end of training, the experimental group demonstrated higher peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) , percentage of predicted peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak%pred) , peak metabolic equivalent (METpeak) , peak heart rate (HRpeak) , peak load, and anaerobic threshold (AT) , and lower intensity of perceived dyspnea and leg fatigue than the control group (P