Some healthy lifestyle components have been linked with sleep disordered breathing (SDB), yet little is known about the relationship between comprehensive lifestyle factors and SDB. This study aimed to examine the healthy lifestyle with SDB in community-dwelling adults. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the Suzhou Food Consumption and Health Survey in China between 2018 and 2020. The healthy lifestyle index (HLI) was created by combining smoking, alcohol drinking, diet, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI). Its association with SDB was assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were conducted to assess the robustness of our results. The final analysis included 3788 participants (2859 without SDB and 929 with SDB). In multivariable-adjusted analyses, non-smoking (OR: 0.58, 95 % CI: 0.47–0.71), non-drinking (OR: 0.55, 95 % CI: 0.45–0.68), healthy diet (OR: 0.79, 95 % CI: 0.65–0.95), and healthy BMI (OR: 0.72, 95 % CI: 0.6–0.86) were associated with SDB. Compared with participants with HLI score of 0–1, participants with HLI score of 2, 3, 4, and 5 had OR of 0.68 (95 % CI: 0.51–0.91), 0.49 (95 % CI: 0.37–0.64), 0.29 (95 % CI: 0.21–0.38), and 0.22 (95 % CI: 0.15–0.33), respectively, after adjustment for confounding factors (P-trend<0.001). An inverse dose-response relationship between HLI and SDB was also observed. The association was similar in subgroups stratified by sex, marital status, diabetes and dyslipidemia. A higher score of HLI was associated with reduced odds of SDB in Chinese adults. Our findings suggest the potential of addressing five modifiable lifestyle factors for the prevention of SDB. •There was an inverse dose-response association between healthy lifestyle index (HLI) and sleep disordered breathing (SDB).•No smoking, no alcohol consumption, healthy diet, and healthy BMI were protective factors for SDB.•The inverse association between HLI and SDB was independent of multiple confounders.