Sleep Disturbances Alleviation: Impacts of Health Information Browsing and Exercise Modes on Young and Middle-Aged Adults

Sleep disturbance (SD) is a universal public health issue in today’s world. Based on social cognitive theory, this study introduces aerobic and anaerobic exercise as parallel variables. It tries to construct a mediation model linking health information browsing to SD in order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms among young and middle-aged individuals. Data were obtained via a survey of 7,019 respondents across China, 5,800 of whom were young and middle-aged participants. Findings indicate that health information browsing correlates positively with both types of exercise and is significantly associated with SD. However, aerobic and anaerobic exercises exert opposite mediating effects, with aerobic exercise mitigating SD via a negative path (bp=-0.005, p<0.001). Conversely, anaerobic exercise exacerbates SD via a positive path (bp=0.024, p<0.001), revealing a complex, multidimensional relationship between health information browsing, physical activity, and sleep. Only moderate information browsing combined with scientific exercise promotes better sleep. Beyond offering a new perspective for health communication and exercise interventions, this finding also aligns with the initiative of building a Healthy China.