Association of Leisure Activities with Sleep Duration and Quality in Chinese Older Adults

This study aimed to investigate the association between leisure activities and sleep among older adults, using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The data in this study were from the CLHLS in 2018. Seven activities including outdoor activities, gardening work, reading newspapers or books, raising domestic animals or pets, playing cards or mahjong, watching TV or listening to the radio, and participating in social activities were collected to reflect leisure activities. Subjective sleep quality was classified as normal and poor and sleep time is divided into short sleep duration, normal sleep duration, and long sleep duration by self-report of older people. Logistic regression analyses were employed to test the association between specific leisure activities and sleep. Older adults who usually participated in leisure activities had a lower rate of poor subjective sleep quality and long sleep duration than those who never participated in leisure activities, and no significant differences were found in the short sleep duration group. Compared with older adults who participated in no leisure activity, those who participated in one or more leisure activities had a lower rate of long sleep duration. The findings provide evidence that the greater frequency and number of participations in leisure activities are associated with a lower rate of poor subjective sleep quality and long sleep duration among Chinese older adults. Encouraging older people to participate frequently in a larger number of leisure activities could improve the sleep conditions of older adults.