Short Sleep Duration Linked to Multimorbidity

A prospective UK cohort study suggested that short sleep duration was associated with the onset of chronic disease and multimorbidity. The study included 7,864 (32.5% women) participants free of multimorbidity. Self-reported sleep duration was measured 6 times between 1985 and 2016. Incidence of multimorbidity was defined as having 2 or more of 13 chronic diseases and followed up to 2019. There were 544 (6.9%) reported sleeping ≤5 hours, 2,562 (32.6%) 6 hours, 3,589 (45.6%) 7 hours, 1,092 (13.9%) 8 hours, and 77 (1.0%) ≥9 hours at age 50. Compared to 7-hour sleep, sleep duration ≤5 hours at age 50, 60 and 70 were all associated with higher multimorbidity risk (hazard ratio: 1.30, 1.32, and 1.40, respectively). Due to the small number of cases in the sleep duration ≥9 hours category, not allowing conclusions to be drawn for this category. Among 7,217 participants free of chronic disease at age 50 (mean follow-up = 25.2 years), 4,446 developed a first chronic disease, 2,297 progressed to multimorbidity, and 787 subsequently died. Compared to 7-hour sleep, sleeping ≤5 hours at age 50 was associated with an increased risk of a first chronic disease (1.20) and, among those who developed a first disease, with subsequent multimorbidity (1.21). However, no association was found between sleep duration and mortality among those with existing chronic diseases. The findings are in line with previous studies and support the role of short sleep duration in chronic diseases. Source: https://journals.plos.org/