Adiposity in Adolescents: The Interplay of Sleep Duration and Sleep Variability

To assess whether adiposity measures differed according to joint categories of sleep duration and sleep variability in a sample of Mexican adolescents.

A sample of 528 Mexico City adolescents aged 9-17 years wore wrist actigraphs for 6-7 days. Average sleep duration was categorized as age-specific sufficient or insufficient. Sleep variability, the standard deviation of sleep duration, was split at the median into stable versus variable. Adiposity measures-body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z score (BMIz), triceps skinfolds, waist circumference, and percent body fat-were collected by trained assistants. We regressed adiposity measures on combined sleep duration and variability categories. Log binomial models were used to estimate prevalence ratios and 95% CI for obesity (>2 BMIz) by joint categories of sleep duration and variability, adjusting for sex, age, and maternal education.

Approximately 40% of the adolescents had insufficient sleep and 13% were obese. Relative to sufficient-stable sleepers, adolescents with insufficient-stable sleep had higher adiposity across all 4 measures (eg, adjusted difference in BMIz was 0.68; 95% CI, 0.35-1.00) and higher obesity prevalence (prevalence ratio, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.36-4.75). Insufficient-variable sleepers had slightly higher BMIz than sufficient-stable sleepers (adjusted difference, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.00-0.59).

Adolescents with consistently insufficient sleep could be at greater risk for obesity. The finding that insufficient-variable sleepers had only slightly higher adiposity suggests that opportunities for "catch-up" sleep may be protective.