Short-term insomnia symptoms are associated with level and not type of physical activity in a sample of Indian collegiate students: Sleep complaints and physical activity in college students

Abstract

Objective – There is mixed findings on the association between physical activity and sleep. Hence this  study investigated  association of level and  type of  physical activity with short term insomnia   among college students. Methods - A cross sectional study was conducted among college students in India. Six hundred sixty two students were included, with a mean age of 23.2 ± 3.5 years.The sample consisted of  359  males and 303 females. The predictor   variables  were self reported type and physical activity level and predicted  variables were self reported sleep complaints.Physical activity components  were aseesesed through international physical activity questionnaire – short form and  sleep complaints using Pitssburg sleep questionnaire . The binary logistic regression models were used for data analysis. Level of significance was set at  p < 0.05 for all the analysis. Results – The self reported symptoms of short trem insomnia such as  global sleep quality (adjusted odds ratio(AOR)=15.58)  , subjective sleep quality (AOR=6.01), sleep latency (AOR= 5.09) , sleep duration (AOR=0.13), sleep disturbances (AOR=4.88), day time sleep dysfunction (AOR=5.59) had shown association with level of physical activity. There was no association of type of physical activity with any other predicted  variables studied. Conclusions – The findings of the present study supports that  level of physical activity is a key predictor of short term insomnia symptoms  among college students. Different interventions startegies may be developed and implemented to improve the level of physical activity among students