Association between physical activity over a 10-year period and current insomnia symptoms, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness: a European population-based study
Thorarinn Gislason,
Joachim Heinrich,
Pascal Demoly,
Rain Jogi,
Kjell Torén,
Jennifer L Perret,
Debbie Jarvis,
Judith Garcia Aymerich,
Eva Lindberg,
Christer Janson,
Erla Bjornsdottir,
Bryndis Benediktsdottir,
Vanessa Garcia Larsen,
Karl Franklin,
Sandra Dorado-Arenas,
Elin Helga Thorarinsdottir
Affiliations
Thorarinn Gislason
Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland School of Health Sciences, Reykjavik, Iceland
Joachim Heinrich
14 Department of psychology, Institute and Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munchen, Germany
Pascal Demoly
9 Department of psychology, University Hospital of Montpellier, University of Montpellier–INSERM UMR UA11, Montpellier, France
Rain Jogi
Lung Clinic, Tartu, Estonia
Kjell Torén
2 Occupational and Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Jennifer L Perret
10 Department of psychology, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Debbie Jarvis
7 Population Health and Occupational Disease, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London School of Public Health, London, UK
Judith Garcia Aymerich
11 Department of psychology, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
Eva Lindberg
4 Department of Medical Sciences: Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Christer Janson
Department of Medical Sciences: Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Erla Bjornsdottir
1 Department of psychology, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland
Bryndis Benediktsdottir
Department of Sleep, Landspitali – The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Vanessa Garcia Larsen
17 Program in Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Karl Franklin
6 Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Umea Universitet, Umea, Sweden
Sandra Dorado-Arenas
13 Department of Pulmonology, Hospital Galdakao-Usansolo, Galdacano, Spain
Elin Helga Thorarinsdottir
Primary Health Care of the Capital Area, Reykjavik, Iceland
Objectives To explore the relationship between physical activity over a 10-year period and current symptoms of insomnia, daytime sleepiness and estimated sleep duration in adults aged 39–67.Design Population-based, multicentre cohort study.Setting 21 centres in nine European countries.Methods Included were 4339 participants in the third follow-up to the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS III), who answered questions on physical activity at baseline (ECRHS II) and questions on physical activity, insomnia symptoms, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness at 10-year follow-up (ECRHS III). Participants who reported that they exercised with a frequency of at least two or more times a week, for 1 hour/week or more, were classified as being physically active. Changes in activity status were categorised into four groups: persistently non-active; became inactive; became active; and persistently active.Main outcome measures Insomnia, sleep time and daytime sleepiness in relation to physical activity.Results Altogether, 37% of participants were persistently non-active, 25% were persistently active, 20% became inactive and 18% became active from baseline to follow-up. Participants who were persistently active were less likely to report difficulties initiating sleep (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.45–0.78), a short sleep duration of ≤6 hours/night (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.59–0.85) and a long sleep of ≥9 hours/night (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.33–0.84) than persistently non-active subjects after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, smoking history and study centre. Daytime sleepiness and difficulties maintaining sleep were not related to physical activity status.Conclusion Physically active people have a lower risk of some insomnia symptoms and extreme sleep durations, both long and short.
