Associations of actigraphy-assessed sleep measures with hemodynamic burden in females following bariatric surgery

PURPOSE: Bariatric surgery leads to substantial weight loss, which is often accompanied by improvements in self-reported sleep quality and modest increases in self-reported sleep duration. However, much of this evidence relies on questionnaire-based assessments, and less is known about whether these improvements extend to objectively measured sleep duration and efficiency. Moreover, while sleep duration and efficiency influence cardiovascular regulation, the association between actigraphy-assessed sleep and hemodynamic burden has not been investigated in females following bariatric surgery. Therefore, the present study examined associations between actigraphy-assessed sleep duration and efficiency measured over 7 days and hemodynamic burden in adult females after bariatric surgery. HYPOTHESIS: Shorter sleep duration and lower sleep efficiency will be associated with increased hemodynamic burden. METHODS: Data on actigraphy-assessed sleep (mean sleep duration and sleep efficiency) over 7 days, as well as measures of hemodynamic burden measured during an in-lab visit (resting brachial systolic, mean, and diastolic blood pressure (BP), resting aortic systolic and diastolic BP, pulse pressure, and resting heart rate) from 18 females following bariatric surgery (age=54.9±9.6 years; body mass index = 36.3±9.1 kg/m 2 ; 61.1% White) are presented. Spearman correlations assessed associations between sleep duration and efficiency with hemodynamic burden measures. Correlation coefficients (ρ) determined strength of associations and significance was set at a=0.05. RESULTS: Mean sleep duration and efficiency were 7.7±1.4 hours/night and 90.9±7.4%, respectively. Sleep duration was inversely associated with brachial diastolic BP (ρ = -0.50; p < 0.05), aortic diastolic BP (ρ = -0.50; p < 0.05) and mean arterial pressure (ρ = -0.50; p < 0.05). Sleep efficiency was inversely associated with brachial diastolic BP (ρ = -0.47; p < 0.05). Sleep was not associated with other measures of hemodynamic burden. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that greater sleep duration and sleep efficiency are associated with lower hemodynamic burden, and may therefore contribute to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in females following bariatric surgery. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.