Associations of Consecutive Short Sleep Duration and Physical Activity in Preschool

Children

Presenter: Sarah Freedman

Faculty Sponsor: Christine Woodward St Laurent

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A30

ABSTRACT

Background: In older children and adults, insufficient sleep can negatively affect physical activity levels, but findings in young children have been inconsistent. Short sleep duration could have daily influences on children’s physical activity, with consecutive nights influencing these associations. Purpose: To determine if consecutive nights or 24-hour periods of short sleep duration are associated with physical activity in preschool children. Methods: Actigraphy data from preschoolers was collected through actigraphy watches and logs provided by parents of the children involved in the study. Sleep measures included duration, waking duration, and bed and wake times. Physical activity was expressed as daily actigraphy counts/min during daytime wake periods. Results: We will present findings from two linear regression models (night sleep and 24-hour sleep). For each model, the dependent variable will be physical activity. Independent variables will include the longest bout of short sleep (<10 hours), age, sex, proportion of short sleep during the measurement period, and potentially other sociodemographic factors. We anticipate that more nights of consecutive short sleep will be negatively associated with activity levels. Conclusions: Our findings will identify if, in this generally healthy sample of preschool children, consecutive bouts of short sleep are detrimental to their physical activity levels. These results can be used as an underlying principle for the importance of increasing sleep duration among children as it may have better benefits to their physical health.

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