The association of zero walking cadence minutes with sleep quality in adults 18-65

Physical activity (PA) guidelines suggest a link between PA, sedentary time, and sleep quality (SQ). Step cadence is an emerging proxy for PA intensity, with zero cadence (ZC) indicating sedentary time. No research has explored the relationship between ZC and SQ. This study examines the relationship between ZC and SC, compared to traditional PA and sedentary metrics, all measured via accelerometry.

Sleep and PA was assessed in 138 adults (53 male, 85 female, age = 23.5 ± 8.0 year.) via accelerometry. Sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous intensity PA, and ZC minutes per day were measured. SQ variables included sleep efficiency (SE), total sleep time (TST), and minutes of awake time after sleep onset (WASO). Correlation analysis and analysis of covariance was used to assess relationships between study variables and to assess differences in PA and sedentary behavior between normal and poor sleepers.

Sedentary time was negatively associated with SE (r = -0.24, P < 0.05) and TST (r = -0.51, P < 0.001). ZC was negatively associated with SE (r = -0.25, P < 0.05), TST (r = -0.39, P < 0.001) and positively associated with WASO (r = 0.17, P < 0.001). Poor sleepers accumulated greater ZC minutes than normal sleepers when categorized by SE (555.9 ± 69.1 vs. 521.6 ± 83.7, P = 0.02)) or TST (570.4 ± 77.7 vs. 524.5 ± 76.7, P < 0.01).

Results suggest that zero cadence minutes is a viable metric for assessing sedentary time and may be of greater utility to more traditional measure of sedentary time.