Abstract
Abstract
Background: Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sleep duration are two crucial and important components in maintaining overall health. Although there are clear guidelines on both MVPA and sleep duration, it is distinctly shown throughout the literature that adolescents from around the globe commonly fall short of the recommendations. Recently, there has been a shift to moving the guidelines towards a 24 h approach. Despite this, there is limited research available which assesses both MPVA and sleep durations concurrently in adolescents.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the sleep and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, measured in adolescent females of the Survey of Nutrition, Dietary Assessment, and Lifestyles (SuNDiAL) project, and to investigate how average MVPA may affect average sleep from one day to the next.
Design: Two hundred and thirty-eight adolescent females aged 15-18 y were recruited from high schools from eight different locations throughout New Zealand (NZ). Accelerometers (Actigraph GT3X) were used to assess MVPA and sleep duration.
Results: Participants spent an overall mean time of 42.6 min and 7 h and 18 min each day in MVPA and sleep, respectively. Compared to the guidelines of at least 60 min of MVPA and 8-10 h of sleep per day, only 23% and 20% of participants meet the guidelines for MPVA and sleep, respectively. Time spent in MVPA was not associated with an increased sleep duration for that evening. Additionally, participants who accumulated a higher average of MVPA throughout the week, did not sleep longer compared to their counter parts. These results suggest there is no meaningful association between MVPA and sleep duration.
Conclusion: A large proportion of adolescent girls do not meet the physical activity and sleep guidelines. This suggests there is a need for interventions which target physical activity and sleep separately which would support this age group to undertake healthier practices which would therefore lead to more favourable health outcomes.