Association between joint physical activity and sleep duration and hypertension in US adults: Cross-sectional NHANES...

Previous studies have adequately demonstrated that physical activity or healthy sleep duration can reduce the risk of hypertension. However, the combined effects of physical activity and healthy sleep on hypertension have not been well explored in studies using nationally representative samples.

The data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2018). Sleep duration and physical activity were obtained from self-reported questionnaires. Survey logistic regression and restricted cubic spline curves were used to evaluate the joint effects of physical activity and healthy sleep duration on hypertension.

A total of 18,007 participants were enrolled in the main study. Physical activity was categorized into insufficient physical activity (600 < Met-min/week) and sufficient physical activity (≥600 Met-min/week). Sleep duration of ≤6 or ≥9 hours was defined as unhealthy sleep duration, and 7-8 hours was defined as healthy sleep duration. Compared to the individuals with unhealthy sleep duration and insufficient physical activity, only the participants with healthy sleep duration and sufficient physical activity (adjusted odds ratio: 0.76, 95% CI 0.66-0.88) were negatively associated with hypertension, while the participants with healthy sleep duration but insufficient physical activity or sufficient physical activity but unhealthy sleep duration were not associated with hypertension. Physical activity was nonlinearly associated with hypertension in the healthy sleep duration group, whereas in the unhealthy sleep duration group, physical activity was not associated with hypertension.

Our findings indicate that sufficient physical activity and healthy sleep duration were negatively associated with hypertension. This underscores the importance of integrating both sufficient physical activity and healthy sleep duration in strategies aimed at reducing hypertension risk.