Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current
Preferred Name
Makayla Cawley
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Date of Graduation
5-16-2026
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Publish
yes
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Department
Department of Kinesiology
First Advisor
Trent Hargens
Second Advisor
Micheal Saunders
Abstract
Abstract
Purpose: To examine the relationship between step cadence and sleep quality and to determine if differences exist between men and women.
Methods: 206 adults (67 men and 139 women, mean age 26.0 ±11.2 years old) wore an ActiGraph accelerometer for 7 days to assess PA and sleep under free-living conditions. The sleep outcomes focused on included Total Sleep Time (TST), Sleep Efficiency (SE), and Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO). TST is the total amount of sleep during a sleep period, typically in hours, including all uninterrupted periods of sleep. WASO is the time spent awake after falling asleep before final awakening, which is an important indicator of sleep fragmentation. SE represents the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed and is calculated as the ratio of TST to time in bed, multiplied by 100. Spearman’s Rho partial correlations controlling for accelerometer wear time were used to examine associations between PA variables and sleep outcomes separately by sex.
Results: In men, fewer consistent relationships were observed than in women, although moderate-intensity PA and total MVPA were associated with lower SE and shorter TST. Higher cadence ranges (100-119 steps/minute) were also associated with poorer sleep outcomes in men. In women, greater light-intensity PA and time spent in lower cadence ranges (20-39 steps/minute) were also associated with improved sleep outcomes, specifically lower WASO and higher SE. Greater sedentary time was associated with poorer sleep, reflective of higher WASO.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that cadence-based metrics may provide a useful approach for understanding the relationship between PA and sleep. Lower-intensity habitual movement appears to play a role in sleep regulation, particularly in women, and cadence may offer a practical and accessible way to capture these patterns.
