ArticleBMC pediatrics2020
Associations between objective measures of physical activity, sleep and stress levels among preschool children.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of the association between sleep health and stress biomarkers in children.Sleep medicine reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Exploring the associations between physical activity, sleep, sedentary behaviour, and mental health in young German children.Journal of activity, sedentary and sleep behaviors · 2026Article
- Physical Activity, Sleep, and Cognition in Preschool-Aged Children: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Is Higher Frequency Always Better? The Dose-Response Relationship Between Structured Physical Activity Frequency and Physical Fitness Improvement in Preschool Children.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2026Article
- Elevated Hair Cortisol Concentrations Are Associated With Poor Sleep Quality Evaluated Using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index but Not With Actigraphy.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Effect of Physical Activity Participation on Lifestyle Habits and School Life Among Korean Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Psychological and Physiological Stress and Stressors in Early Childhood Educators: An Observational Pilot Study.Psychology in the schools · 2024Article
- Associations of objectively measured physical activity and sleep in preschoolers aged 3 to 6 years.Frontiers in sleep · 2024Article
- Association of hair glucocorticoid levels with sleep quality indicators: a pilot study in apparently healthy perimenopausal and menopausal women.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- A Systematic Review of the Relationships Between Physical Activity and Sleep in Early Childhood.Kinesiology review (Champaign, Ill.) · 2022Article
- Sleep quality, valence, energetic arousal, and calmness as predictors of device-based measured physical activity during a three-week mHealth intervention: An ecological momentary assessment study within the SMARTGerman journal of exercise and sport research · 2022Article
- Actigraphic sleep and cortisol in middle childhood: A multivariate behavioral genetics model.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Sex differences in childhood sleep and health implications.Annals of human biology · 2021Review
- Sleep and stress in mother-toddler dyads living in low-income homes.Developmental psychobiology · 2021Article
- Hair Cortisol Concentration as a Biomarker of Sleep Quality and Related Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCortisol is often used as a biological marker for stress. When measured in urine or serum, representing a short-term measurement of the hormone, it has been associated with unfavorable sleep characteristics and both low and high physical activity levels. However, cortisol in hair represents a long-term stress measure and has been suggested as a promising new marker for chronic stress. Therefore, we aimed to examine the association between objectively measured sleep, physical activity and hair cortisol levels in preschool children.
methodsIn order to obtain objective measures of physical activity and sleep habits, 54 children aged 2-6 years wore an ActiGraph for 5 consecutive days and nights. For chronic stress measurements of each child, hair was cut from the back of the head close to the scalp for analysis of cortisol levels. Associations between measured sleep quality and quantity and level of physical activity and hair cortisol levels were estimated using linear regression analysis, presented as β. Results were adjusted for sex, age and BMI z-score.
resultsWe found no significant association between log-transformed cortisol (pg/mg) and sleep duration (hours) (β = - 0.0016, p = 0.99), sleep efficiency (β = - 3.1, p = 0.18), sleep latency (β = 0.015, p = 0.16) or physical activity level (100 counts per min) (β = 0.014, p = 0.22). However, sleep latency (min) was directly associated with physical activity (counts per min) levels (β = 35.2, p = 0.02), while sleep duration (hours) (β = - 142.1, p = 0.55) and sleep efficiency (%) (β = - 4087, p = 0.26) showed no significant associations.
conclusionsIn our study, a high physical activity level was associated with poorer sleep habits. Neither sleep quality nor physical activity were related to long term cortisol exposure. These results are among the first to study associations between objectively measured sleep, physical activity and chronic cortisol levels among preschool children. More and larger studies are therefore needed.
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