Sleep health mediates the relationship between physical activity and depression symptoms

Abstract

Purpose This study aimed to investigate cross-sectional associations between physical activity, sleep health, and depression symptoms using mediation models. Methods Participants ( N = 1576, M Age = 39.3 years, 40% female) were recruited online from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowd-sourcing service. Physical activity was measured using a single-item self-report measure and depression symptoms were reported using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Sleep health was measured using the 6-question RUSATED Sleep Health survey V2.0. Results Good sleep health (direct effect: β = − .273, t = − 13.87, p < .0001) and high levels of physical activity (direct effect: β = − .092, t = − 4.73, p < .0001) were both individually associated with fewer depression symptoms. Sleep health significantly mediated 19% of the association between physical activity and depression symptoms (indirect effect: β = − .022, 95% CI [− .036 to − .008]), while physical activity significantly mediated 3% of the relationship between sleep health and depression symptoms (indirect effect: β = − .008, 95% CI [− .014 to − .003]). Conclusion Physical activity and sleep health act as predictors and mediators of depression symptoms.

Mechanisms linking physical activity with psychiatric symptoms across lifespan: A systematic review

“…Within the 17 studies that explored the psychosocial mechanisms linking physical activity with psychiatric symptoms, two studies used social support/connection [25,28], one study used body image [33], one study used self-criticism and self-enhancement [32], eight studies used self-esteem [24,25,31,35–37,40,46], four studies used self-concept [30,34,36,37], five studies used self-efficacy [24,36,39,41,44], one study used self-perception [24] and three studies used mood [24,39,44]. as the potential mechanisms of interest.…”

“…Among the seven studies that explored the neurobiological mechanisms, one study used hippocampal volume [28], one study used white matter microstructure [26], one study used stress-induced biomarkers [29], one study used neurotransmitters [36], one study used hormones [43], two studies used inflammatory biomarkers [29,45], one study used epigenetics [47]. The two studies that explored behavioral mechanisms focused on sleep [41,42].…”

“…Third, three out of four longitudinal studies showed low risk of bias [31,42,45]. Lastly, of the 13 cross-sectional studies, 11 showed high risk of bias [26–28,30,33,35,37–41], and two studies showed low risk of bias [25,32].…”

“…In this study, we found and included two studies that identified sleep as a potential path through which physical activity might reduce psychiatric symptoms in adults ( [41,42]. Previous studies showed that physical activity has a beneficial effect on sleep, where it can improve sleep quality and duration; additionally, sleep is essential for recovery after doing physical activity [42,53].…”

“…The included studies have sample sizes ranging from 39 [24] to 14,594 [25]. Three studies included children [26][27][28], eight studies included adolescents [24,25,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], nine studies included young adults [24,32,33,[36][37][38][39][40], six studies included adults [32,33,[39][40][41][42], and six studies included elderly people [39,[43][44][45][46][47].…”