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Too much, too little sleep associated with metabolic syndrome
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Individuals who sleep less than 6 hours and more than 10 hours per day may have an increased risk for metabolic syndrome, according to research published in BMC Public Health.
“Both short and long sleep duration have been consistently studied as a risk factor for obesity, hyperglycemia and hypertension,” Claire E. Kim, from Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea, and colleagues wrote.
Kim and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to determine how sleep duration affects metabolic syndrome among adults aged 40 to 69 years (n = 133,608; 44,930 men).
The researchers determined sleep duration by asking participants “In the past year, on average, how many hours/minutes of sleep (including daytime naps) did you take per day?” Sleep was categorized into four categories: less than 6 hours, 6 to 8 hours, 8 to 10 hours and 10 hours or more. Participants were classified as having metabolic syndrome if they demonstrated at least three of the following criteria: elevated waist circumference, high triglyceride levels, low levels of HDL cholesterol, hypertension and high fasting blood sugar.
Data showed that men sleeping less than 6 hours were more likely to have metabolic syndrome (adjusted OR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.19) and elevated waist circumference (aOR = 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08-1.23), compared with those sleeping 6 to 8 hours per day. Women sleeping less than 6 hours were also more likely to have metabolic syndrome (aOR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.04-1.14).
Men who slept more than 10 hours were more likely to have metabolic syndrome (aOR = 1.28; 95% CI, 1.08-1.5) and elevated triglycerides (aOR = 1.33; 95% CI, 1.14-1.56).
Women who had more than 10 hours of sleep were more likely to have metabolic syndrome (aOR = 1.4; 95% CI, 1.24-1.58), elevated waist circumference (aOR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.02-1.27), elevated triglycerides (aOR = 1.41; 95% CI, 1.25-1.58), reduced HDL cholesterol (aOR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.12-1.38) and elevated fasting glucose (aOR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.23-1.57).
Metabolic syndrome was prevalent among 29% of men and 24.5% of women.
“This is the largest study examining a dose-response association between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome and its components separately for men and women,” Kim said in a press release.
“Because we were able to expand the sample of our previous study, we were able to detect associations between sleep and metabolic syndrome that were unnoticed before,” she added. “We observed a potential gender difference between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome, with an association between metabolic syndrome and long sleep in women and metabolic syndrome and short sleep in men.” – by Alaina Tedesco
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.