A new study published in the journal Health Data Science has shown that having poor sleep habits is linked to dozens of diseases, including heart disease, liver cirrhosis, dementia, and gangrene.
The study included data from over 88,000 participants in the UK Biobank. The participants wore accelerometers and had various aspects of their sleep health and habits measured, including sleep duration, sleep onset timing, sleep rhythm, and sleep fragmentation (waking up during the night). Participants were followed for an average of 6.8 years and monitored for the onset of hundreds of diseases. Sleep quality has been previously tied to the development of many diseases, and this study sought to determine the relationship between disease and sleep traits as objectively measured using accelerometers.
The results showed that 172 diseases were associated with aspects of sleep, and 92 of those diseases had 20% or more of their risk tied to poor sleep behaviors. In particular, having an irregular bedtime was linked to about 2.5 times the risk of developing liver cirrhosis, and erratic or inconsistent sleep patterns were linked to over 2.6 times the risk of gangrene. Dementia risk was tied to sleep duration, and both heart disease and Parkinson’s disease were tied to sleep rhythm. Notably, the results of this study showed that longer sleep durations (>9 hours) may not be as harmful as previously thought, potentially due to previous studies conflating time spent in bed with sleep time.
The authors of the study noted that their results highlight the often-overlooked importance of sleep regularity. While most previous studies have included only sleep duration, this study linked many diseases to sleep regularity as a separate measure of sleep health. For optimal health, it’s important both to get enough sleep and to sleep and wake at about the same time every day.
Sources: Health Data Science, Science Daily
