This cross-sectional study was conducted to describe the physical activity and sleep in 290 community-dwelling Chinese older adults and to examine the association between physical activity and poor sleep outcomes. Almost half of the samples were poor sleepers. The majority of the samples regularly participated in walking, some household activity, and light sports, yet only a small portion were involved in work-related activity or in strenuous sports. A greater level of overall physical activity (odds ratio = 0.79; 95% confidence interval = [0.73, 0.86]), leisure-time exercise (odds ratio = 0.77; 95% confidence interval = [0.68, 0.85]), and household activity (odds ratio = 0.66; 95% confidence interval = [0.56, 0.78]) were associated with reduced likelihood of being poor sleepers and other poor sleep outcomes, independent of covariates including age, sex, education, family income, the number of children, drinking, and sleep hygiene. Future larger-scale studies that incorporate both objective and subjective measures are needed to further examine the association and to explore the effects of different types of activity on sleep and other well-beings in older adults.
Keywords: leisure-time exercise; nonexercise activity; sleep quality.