Abstract
Objectives
Based on objective measurement tools such as accelerometers and sleep recorders, to explore the relationship between physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB) and sleep patterns of young children, and to summarize effective strategies for optimizing the sleep patterns of different types of preschoolers, in order to provide scientific basis for promoting the health of preschool children's sleep
Methods
A total of 120 children from 3 kindergartens were recruited. Physical activity was measured with the help of a triaxial accelerometer, ActiGraph GT3X-BT; a portable multichannel sleep recorder, Motionloggers, was used to objectively measure the sleep pattern variables of the children. An isochronous substitution model was used to characterize changes in sleep patterns after substitution of moderate to high intensity physical activity, low intensity physical activity and sedentary behavior.
Results
The results of the univariate modeling found no significant associations between moderate-high-intensity physical activity, low-intensity physical activity, and sedentary behavior with any of the sleep pattern indicators in young children (p > 0.05). Distribution model showed that low-intensity physical activity had a significant positive effect on sleep efficiency (p < 0.05) and a significant negative effect on sleep fragmentation index (p < 0.05). The results of isochronal substitution model showed that sleep efficiency increased significantly (p < 0.05), wake after sleep onset and sleep fragmentation index decreased significantly (p < 0.05) when moderate-high-intensity physical activity and sedentary behavior were replaced by low-intensity physical activity for 10 minutes isochronally, and the sleep efficiency increased or decreased continuously with the increase of replacement time.
Conclusions
Increasing the relative proportion of low-intensity physical and decreasing the proportion of sedentary behavior or moderate-high-intensity physical activity is an effective strategy to improve sleep efficiency and reduce night waking time and sleep fragments.