Background

Physical inactivity and obesity are known risk factors for poor sleep quality and also increases risk of sleep disordered breathing (SDB)

Objective

We aimed to investigate the association between physical activity (PA) and BMI on SDB and sleep related symptoms in an adult population.

Method

We included 8754 participants (mean age= 29.5 years, 57.96% female) from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain, and Australia (RHINESSA) study. Diagnosed SDB and sleep related symptoms (difficulty initiating sleep (DIS), difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS), early morning awakening (EMA), snoring, nocturnal sweating, nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux (nGER), sleep time, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)) were assessed using questionnaires. Physically active was defined as >1hr of activity for > 2-3 times a week. We adjusted for age, gender, education, study center, smoking status and comorbidities (asthma, COPD and hypertension).

Result

We found no significant interaction effect between BMI and PA, indicating that the effect of PA on sleep related symptoms did not depend on BMI and vice versa. And also PA did not show significant association with SDB and sleep related symptoms, however obese group (>30kg/m2) had higher odds of SDB (adj OR 95% CI: 5.77(3.06-11.12)), snoring 4.69(3.78-5.82), nGER 2.78(2.11-3.66), EMA 1.57(1.23-2.01), EDS 1.36(1.15-1.70), DIS 1.45(1.18-1.77) and short sleep(<6hr) 2.52(1.85-3.44) compared to normal BMI. Additionally, our analysis showed a growing correlation between increasing BMI and higher odds ratio of SDB, snoring, nGER and short sleep.

Conclusion

Individuals being obeses may be at higher risk of sleep disturbance and SDB. Further studies are required.