The Association of Vigorous Activity With Sleep Patterns in the Adventist Health Study 2 Authors

Physical activity may promote sleep, but few studies examined whether vigorous exercise is associated with difficulty falling asleep or waking in the middle of the night. This study examined the relationship between these variables. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) questionnaireline was completed by approximately 97000 churchgoers in North America to investigate relationships between lifestyle, including exercise habits, and chronic disease. A randomly selected subset participated in the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study (BRHS), including about 11 000 respondents who answered questions about psychosocial and religious issues, including sleep patterns. After excluding participants with chronic disease, 3960 remained: 2502 women (1502 Whites and 1000 Blacks) and 1458 men (1038 Whites and 420 Blacks). Logistic regressions were adjusted for age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), diet, education, alcohol, caffeinated-beverage use, hours of sleep, and napping. Increased frequency of vigorous physical activity was protective against difficulty falling asleep (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.94-0.98; P = 0.03). Higher odds of difficulty falling asleep were observed among female participants, increasing age, weekday napping, and sleeping 9 hours or more per night. Vigorous physical activity was associated with reduced difficulty falling asleepline but showed no relation to waking during the night.