Exercise and sleep-disordered breathing: an association independent of body habitus.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The degree to which physical exercise habits are related to sleep-disordered breathing is not known. We sought to investigate the association between a single-item exercise question and laboratory-assessed sleep-disordered breathing. DESIGN A population-based cross-sectional epidemiologic study of adults measured the association between exercise and sleep-disordered breathing. Hours of weekly planned exercise were assessed by questionnaire. Sleep-disordered breathing was assessed by 18-channel in-laboratory polysomnography and characterized by the apnea-hypopnea index. SETTING Polysomnography was conducted at the University of Wisconsin General Clinical Research Center sleep laboratory. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS Participants included 1104 men and women, aged 30 to 60 years, enrolled in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Associations were modeled using linear and logistic regression, adjusting for body mass index, skinfold measurements, age, sex, and other covariates. Adjusted mean (95% confidence interval) apnea-hypopnea index was 5.3 (4.4, 6.2) events per hour for participants who exercised 0 hours per week; 3.9 (2.8, 5.0) events per hour for those with 1 to 2 hours of exercise; 3.2 (2.2, 4.2) events per hour for those with 3 to 6 hours of exercise; and 2.8 (1.0, 4.6) for those with > 7 hours of exercise (P trend < .001). Similarly, the odds of having moderate or worse sleep-disordered breathing (apnea-hypopnea index > 15 events per hour) significantly decreased with increasing level of exercise. CONCLUSION Independent of measures of body habitus, lack of exercise was associated with increased severity of sleep-disordered breathing.