Worse sleep quality predicts early drop out from physical exercise programs

Sleep quality (SQ) benefits from regular physical exercise (PE) practice, but the effect of SQ over behavioral aspects of PE is not well known. In this study, we tested whether sleep variables can predict the drop out risk for PE programs during a six-week critical period for habit formation at gyms.

We assessed 153 volunteers, freshly enrolled at three different gyms and from both sexes, with average age of 33.6 (±11.9) years. Questionnaires provided sociodemographic, health, sleep, physical activity and circadian rhythmicity information. Daily PE practice frequency was monitored using the gym's turnstiles electronic records. We created a multivariate model using Cox regression in order to test the risk of PE program drop out during the first six weeks.

Worse SQ predicted a higher drop out risk (HR=1.11; 95%CI = 1.02-1.21; p<0.05), even when adjusted for other potential confounding variables.

We found that worse SQ predicted a higher early drop out from PE programs in the formal context of gyms during the first six weeks, along with other variables related to PE practice.