In a groundbreaking international study, researchers have identified a significant link between irregular sleep patterns and an elevated risk of 172 different diseases.
The analysis involved objective sleep data collected from more than 88,000 adults in the UK Biobank, highlighting crucial sleep traits that can impact long-term health.
The research was led by teams from Peking University and Army Medical University, emphasizing the focus on sleep regularity, or the consistency of bedtimes and circadian rhythm stability, as a critical but often overlooked factor in disease risk.
Utilizing actigraphy data over an average follow-up period of 6.8 years, the study discovered that poor sleep habits were notably associated with serious health conditions.
Among the findings, irregular bedtimes were linked to a 2.57-fold higher risk of developing liver cirrhosis, while low interdaily stability (variability in sleep timing across days) significantly increased the risk of gangrene by 2.61 times.
While previous beliefs suggested that longer sleep durations could be harmful, this study challenges those assumptions.
The researchers found that many individuals who self-reported as ‘long sleepers’ were actually experiencing reduced sleep efficiency, spending more time in bed but achieving minimal actual sleep.
This revelation underscores the need to reassess how we define ‘good sleep,’ shifting the emphasis from mere duration to the regularity of sleep patterns.
The implications of these findings are far-reaching.
The study indicates that poor sleep regularity was attributed to 172 diseases, a stark reminder of the potential health consequences linked to our sleeping habits.
In particular, it was noted that 42 diseases exhibited a greater than doubled risk related to poor sleep behaviors.
Prominent conditions included age-related physical debility, gangrene, and liver cirrhosis.
Perhaps the most significant finding was that 92 diseases had more than 20% of their burden attributable to inadequate sleep behavior.
This included alarming conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and acute kidney failure.
A unique aspect of this study was its focus on sleep rhythm, with 48.3% of the disease associations found to be specifically linked to sleep rhythm rather than merely sleep duration.
In the past, research primarily concentrated on sleep duration, which may have overlooked critical elements affecting health.
Utilizing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, researchers were able to validate the findings of this study beyond the UK Biobank population.
Among the other notable insights, the study revealed that individuals who considered themselves long sleepers but had objectively short sleep durations were often misclassified, contributing to false-positive disease associations in prior subjective studies.
This misclassification could partially explain the previous research linking long sleep to adverse health outcomes such as ischemic heart disease and depressive disorders.
A mediation analysis conducted as part of the study indicated that inflammatory factors such as leukocytes, eosinophils, and C-reactive protein played a significant role in the newly identified connections between sleep and various diseases.
Professor Shengfeng Wang, a senior author of the study, emphasized the need to broaden our understanding of healthy sleep.
“Our findings underscore the overlooked importance of sleep regularity,” he stated.
“It’s time we broaden our definition of good sleep beyond just duration.”
This paradigm shift in understanding sleep health is not only important for researchers but also has practical implications for public health messaging around sleep hygiene.
As the research team continues to explore these associations, future studies will delve deeper into the causal relationships and examine the potential benefits of sleep interventions on chronic disease outcomes.
In conclusion, the pioneering study published in Health Data Science marks a significant advancement in our understanding of sleep and health, providing compelling evidence that the way we sleep matters just as much—if not more—than how long we sleep.
Such insights can pave the way for interventions aimed at improving sleep regularity, which might ultimately contribute to a reduction in the incidence of serious health conditions linked to poor sleep habits.
image source from：neurosciencenews
