Relationships of Sleep Duration, Midpoint, and Variability with Physical Activity in the HCHS/SOL Sueño Ancillary Study

ABSTRACT

Objective/Background

Short and long sleep duration, later sleep midpoint, and greater intra-individual sleep variability are associated with lower physical activity, but previous research lacks objective and concurrent assessment of sleep and physical activity. This cross-sectional study examined whether sleep duration, midpoint, and variability in duration and midpoint were related to wrist actigraphy-measured physical activity.

Participants

Participants were 2156 Hispanics/Latinos in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) Sueño Ancillary Study.

Methods

Participants wore Actiwatch devices to measure sleep and physical activity via the wrist for ≥5 days. Physical activity was defined as minutes/day in the upper quartile of the sampling distribution’s non-sleep activity, capturing light to vigorous physical activity.

Results

An inverse linear relationship between sleep duration and physical activity was found such that each additional sleep hour related to 29 fewer minutes of physical activity (B = −28.7, SE = 3.8), p < .01). Variability in sleep midpoint was also associated with physical activity; with each 1-hr increase in variability there were 24 more minutes of physical activity (B = 24.2, SE = 5.6, p < .01). In contrast, sleep midpoint and variability in duration were not associated with physical activity. Sensitivity analyses identified an association of short sleep duration and greater variability in sleep duration with greater accelerometry-derived moderate-to-vigorous physical activity measured at the HCHS/SOL baseline (M = 2.1 years before the sleep assessment).

Conclusions

Findings help clarify inconsistent prior research associating short sleep duration and sleep variability with greater health risks but also contribute novel information with simultaneous objective assessments.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the staff and participants of HCHS/SOL for their important contributions.

Investigators website - http://www.cscc.unc.edu/hchs/

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) under Grants HL098297, HL127307; and author KS was supported by Grant HL079891. The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos was carried out as a collaborative study supported by contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to the University of North Carolina (N01-HC65233), University of Miami (N01-HC65234), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (N01-HC65235), Northwestern University (N01-HC65236), and San Diego State University (N01-HC65237). The following Institutes/Centers/Offices contribute to the HCHS/SOL through a transfer of funds to the NHLBI: National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communications Disorders, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Office of Dietary Supplements.