Daily associations between sleep and physical activity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

The day-today variations of sleep and physical activity are associated with various health outcomes in adults, and previous studies suggested a bidirectional association between these behaviors. The daily associations between sleep and physical activity have been examined in observational or interventional contexts. The primary goal of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarize existing evidence about daily associations between sleep and physical activity outcomes at inter-and intraindividual level in adults. A systematic search of records in eight databases from inception to July 2019 identified 33 peer-reviewed empirical publications that examined daily sleep-physical activity association in adults. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of included studies did not support a bidirectional daily association between sleep outcomes and physical activity. Multilevel meta-analyses showed that three sleep parameters were associated with physical activity the following day: sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and wake after sleep onset. However, the associations were small, and varied in terms of direction and level of variability (e.g. inter-or intra-individual). Daytime physical activity was associated with lower total sleep time the following night at an inter-person level with a small effect size. Future studies should examine sleep and physical activity during a longer period and perform additional sophisticated statistical analyses.

Day-to-day associations between sleep and physical activity: a set of person-specific analyses in adults with overweight and obesity

“…This means that for some participants, being more active on one day can also be associated with less sleep the following night. To date, mostly non-significant day-to-day associations between physical activity and sleep duration the following night have been reported in previous studies (11/14 studies in a recent systematic review; see Atoui et al, 2021). This relative discrepancy with previous findings Fig.…”

“…A recent systematic review and meta-analysis explored the question of whether physical activity on one day was associated with sleep the following night and to what extent sleep on one night was associated with physical activity the following day (Atoui et al, 2021). This review, which included 33 studies conducted in various populations (but none among participants with weight concerns) did not report any clear pattern of associations between several physical activity and sleep outcomes (Atoui et al, 2021). Similarly, another study conducted among adults with overweight or obesity showed no significant day-to-day associations between the two behaviors (measured with an activity monitor) at the group-level (Liao et al, 2020).…”

“…Although it is possible that physical activity and sleep behaviors are not associated at the group and daily level, a previous review on this topic highlighted that studies exploring this question had some statistical and methodological limitations that preclude drawing a definitive conclusion (see Atoui et al, 2021). First, the measurement of physical activity and sleep behaviors should last for longer time periods than what is usually observed in research (e.g., 7 days of accelerometry; e.g., Irish et al, 2014).…”

“…Modeling non-linear associations would help capture potential relationships characterized by a "threshold effect", such as the absence of association between sleep and physical activity up to a particular sleep duration threshold (see for example Bernard et al, 2018). Fourth, only one study so far investigated these associations in adults with overweight or obesity and the study only focused on sleep quantity (i.e., total sleep time), whereas indicators of sleep quality might also be relevant to consider (Atoui et al, 2021;Liao et al, 2020).…”

Influences of Suvorexant and Mirtazapine on Chronic Pain-related Sleep Disorder in Neuropathic Pain Model Mice 

“…Recent clinical and basic research suggests that sleep disorder is a heterogenic disorder and requires multifaceted evaluation to correctly determine the state of sleep and the effects of therapeutic agents [23][24][25]. We evaluated the sleep status of a preclinical pain model so that it would be close to clinical situations by examining the sleep quantity, sleep duration, sleep depth, and the effect on daytime activity using EEG or wheel rotation.…”