Exercising, sleep-EEG patterns, and psychological functioning are related among adolescents

Abstract

Objectives. Lay and scientific opinion alike hold that physical activity is efficient as both remedy and preventative measure for poor sleep. There is evidence that strenuous exercising of adolescent elite athletes leads to favourable sleep patterns. However, research on this in non-elite athletes is limited. The aim of the present study was to compare sleep-EEG patterns of higher leisure time exercisers and controls. Methods. A total 38 adolescents (M = 18.59) took part in the study; 17 were high, and 21 were low exercisers. Mean weekly exercise duration was 8.5 h for high and 2 h for low exercisers. Sleep-EEG recordings were performed following a day without exercise. Participants also completed questionnaires regarding their psychological functioning. Results. Compared to low exercisers, high exercisers had more slow wave sleep, and less light and REM sleep, higher scores for positive coping and curiosity, and lower scores for depressive symptoms and somatosensory amplification. Multiple regression analyses showed that weekly exercise duration predicted shortened SOL, low number of awakenings, and increased slow wave sleep. Conclusion. Regular, though not necessarily vigorous, exercise is related to improvement in objective sleep patterns and better psychological functioning. Regular physical activity should be promoted and access to sports facilities should be facilitated.

Key words::

• Adolescents
• sleep deprivation
• stress
• physical activity
• psychological functioning

Acknowledgements

We thank Marielle Koenig and Vladimir Djurdjevic for sleep-EEG scoring. Moreover, we are grateful to Seonaid Collins for data collection and data entry. Finally, we thank Nick Emler (Surrey, UK) for proofreading the manuscript.

Statement of Interest

The entire study was conducted without external funding, and all authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Notes

¹For reasons of convenience and readability, the term exercise is used interchangeably with moderate to vigorous leisure time physical activity and leisure time exercising, although the overlap between the meanings is not at 100% (cf. Sallis and Owen 1999).

²Simple sleep-EEG devices have proved to provide very satisfactory data (cf. Hornung et al. 2008; Brand et al. in press (a)).

³A factor analysis of the 11 psychological functioning variables yielded 10 factors; the first three had Eigenvalues higher than 1, together accounting for 80.5% of the overall variance. The Eigenvalue of the first factor, labelled “Depressive thinking and behavior”, was 5.06; the Eigenvalue of the second factor, labelled “Positive coping”, was 1.89; the Eigenvalue of the third factor, labelled “Negative coping”, was 1.10 (see also Table III).