Temporal Associations between Daytime Physical Activity and Sleep in Children

Abstract

ObjectivesWe examined temporal associations between objectively-measured physical activity (PA) during the day and in the evening, and sleep quantity and quality.Study DesignPA and sleep were measured by actigraphs for an average of one week in an epidemiological cohort study of 275 eight-year-old children.ResultsFor each one standard deviation (SD) unit of increased PA during the day, sleep duration was decreased by 0.30, sleep efficiency by 0.16, and sleep fragmentation increased by 0.08 SD units that night. For each one SD unit increase in sleep duration and efficiency the preceding night, PA the following day decreased by 0.09 and 0.16 SD units, respectively. When we contrasted days with a high amount of moderate to vigorous activity during the day or in the evening to days with a more sedentary profile, the results were essentially similar. However, moderate to vigorous PA in the evening shortened sleep latency.ConclusionsThe relationship between a higher level of PA and poorer sleep is bidirectional. These within-person findings challenge epidemiological findings showing that more active people report better sleep. Since only a few studies using objective measurements of both PA and sleep have been conducted in children, further studies are needed to confirm/refute these results.

Simultaneous presence of excess weight and insufficient hours of sleep in adolescents: prevalence and related factors

“…Similar results were observed in schoolchildren in the United States, where those who reached higher levels of physical activity reported fewer hours of sleep 11 . One of the possible causes of these effects is that adolescents are increasingly involved in extracurricular activities (academic, social and sports activities) and these are directly associated with a decrease in the number of hours of sleep per day 9 .…”

“…The number of physical education classes was collected by the question 'During a typical week, in how many physical education classes do you participate?' The answers to this item were classified into one class per week; two classes per week; and three or more classes per week, since a greater number of sessions of physical activities leads to greater energy expenditure and metabolic alterations that can directly in-fluence body fat and sleep hours 1,11,22 .…”

“…In Brazil, a survey conducted with adolescents identified an increase of 45.9% in the number of hours of sleep (<8 hours per day) during the period from 2001 to 2011 9 . The students who had an insufficient number of hours of sleep/day were male adolescents with a high economic level and high maternal education 6,[9][10][11] .…”

Temporal and bidirectional associations between physical activity and sleep in primary school-aged children

“…However, observational studies that have utilised objective measures to examine temporal and bidirectional relationships between children's physical activity and sleep are equivocal (Ekstedt et al 2013;Krietsch et al 2016;Mcneil et al 2015;Pesonen et al 2011;Sorić et al 2015). Reduced total sleep time has been associated with higher light physical activity (LPA; (Mcneil et al 2015)) and MVPA (Pesonen et al 2011;Sorić et al 2015) the following day.…”

“…Reduced total sleep time has been associated with higher light physical activity (LPA; (Mcneil et al 2015)) and MVPA (Pesonen et al 2011;Sorić et al 2015) the following day.…”