Interactive Compensation Effects of Physical Activity and Sleep on Mental Health: A Longitudinal Panel Study among Chinese College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yao Zhang, Jianxiu Liu, Yi Zhang, Limei Ke and Ruidong Liu ()
Additional contact information
Yao Zhang: Soochow College, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Jianxiu Liu: Division of Sports Science & Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yi Zhang: Department of Physical Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Limei Ke: School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ruidong Liu: Sports Coaching College, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: Physical activity (PA) and sleep are both important to mental health. However, their joint effects on mental distress have not been well explored. The aim of this study was to investigate the joint effects of PA and sleep on mental health, as well as the dose-response relationships between PA and mental health under different sleep health statuses. A longitudinal panel study was adopted to evaluate the relationship between PA, sleep, and mental health among 66 healthy Chinese college students with four online questionnaire surveys. A mixed-effect model with individual-level random effect was used to analyze the interactive regulation effect of PA and sleep on mental health, and a generalized additive model with splines was further fitted to analyze dose-response relationships between variables. When sleep was at a healthy level, no significant difference in mental health was observed between different levels of PA ( p > 0.05). However, poor sleepers with moderate and high PA levels indicated significantly fewer negative emotions than those with low PA levels ( p = 0.001, p = 0.004). Likewise, poor sleepers who engaged in more moderate intensity PA could significantly reduce negative emotions ( β = −0.470, p = 0.011) in a near-linear trend. In summary, both sleep and PA benefit mental health, and they probably regulate mental health through an interactive compensation mode. For good and poor sleepers, PA plays a different role in maintaining and improving mental health. Increasing moderate intensity PA up to moderate-and-high levels is recommended for those who simultaneously suffer from sleep and psychological health problems.

Keywords: longitudinal panel study; physical activity; sleep; mental health; interactive compensation effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12323/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12323/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12323-:d:927620

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().