Background: Sleep is essential for the adolescent's health and well-being. Despite existing evidence of the positive relationship between physical activity and quality of sleep, some other factors could mediate this association. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the interaction between the level of physical activity and sleep in adolescents depending on their gender.
Methods: A total of 12,459 subjects 11 to 19 years old (5073 male and 5016 female) reported data regarding their quality of sleep and their level of physical activity.
Results: Better quality of sleep was reported by males regardless of the level of physical activity (d=0.25, P<0.001). Better quality of sleep was reported by active subjects (P<0.05), and it improved in both sexes as the level of physical activity was higher (P<0.001).
Conclusions: Male adolescents have better sleep quality than females regardless of their competitive level. The higher the adolescents' physical activity level the higher the quality of sleep.