Sleeping Too Little or Too Much Sleep Tied to Chronic Disease

Sleep duration may be associated with certain chronic diseases in persons aged 45 years and older, according to a recent cross-sectional study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Compared with individuals who slept an average of 7 to 9 hours in a 24-hour period (“optimal sleepers”), those who slept 6 or fewer hours (“short sleepers”) and those who slept 10 or more hours (“long sleepers”) reported a higher prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, diabetes, obesity, and frequent mental distress (FMD) in the study.

Researchers also found that the associations with CHD, stroke, and diabetes were even stronger with more sleep. Janet B. Croft, PhD, senior chronic disease epidemiologist, Division of Population Health, CDC, Atlanta, GA, and colleagues analyzed over 54,000 adults (≥45 yr) who completed the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, the world’s largest ongoing telephone health survey system.

The study participants were living in 14 different US states. Approximately 65% of study participants reported being optimal sleepers, approximately 31% reported being short sleepers, and approximately 4% reported being long sleepers in a 24-hour period.

After controlling for sex, age, race/ethnicity, and education, researchers found that both short and long sleep durations were significantly associated with obesity, FMD, CHD, stroke, and diabetes as compared with optimal sleep durations, with long sleep durations having an even more pronounced association with CHD, stroke, and diabetes. Croft revealed in a press release that some of the relationships between unhealthy sleep durations and chronic diseases were partially explained by FMD and obesity, which suggests that healthcare providers may want to monitor their patients with chronic diseases for not only sleep health, but also mental health and body weight.

Researchers stated in the study that “Further prospective studies are needed to determine how mental health and maintenance of a normal weight may interact with sleep duration to prevent chronic diseases.”

The study is available in the current issue of the journal SLEEP.

Do you regularly assess sleep quality, mental health, and body weight in your patients with chronic diseases?

-Meredith Edwards White

References

Liu Y, Wheaton AG, Chapman DP, Croft JB. Sleep duration and chronic diseases among US adults age 45 years and older: evidence from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Sleep. 2013;36(10):1421-1427. Sleeping too little—or too much—associated with heart disease, diabetes, obesity [press release]. Darien, IL: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; October 1, 2013.