Associations between actigraphy-measured sleep duration, continuity, and timing with mortality in the UK Biobank
Pedro F Saint-Maurice, Joshua R Freeman, Daniel Russ, Jonas S Almeida, Marissa M Shams-White, Shreya Patel, Dana L Wolff-Hughes, Eleanor L Watts, Erikka Loftfield, Hyokyoung G Hong, Steven C Moore, Charles E Matthews- Physiology (medical)
- Neurology (clinical)
Abstract
study objectives
To examine the associations between sleep duration, continuity, timing, and mortality using actigraphy among adults.
Methods
Data were from a cohort of 88,282 adults (40-69yrs) in UK Biobank that wore a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer for 7-days. Actigraphy data were processed to generate estimates of sleep duration and other sleep characteristics including wake after sleep onset (WASO), number of 5-min awakenings, and midpoint for sleep onset/wake-up and the least active 5 hours (L5). Data were linked to mortality outcomes with follow-up to 10/31/21. We implemented Cox models (Hazard ratio, confidence intervals [HR, 95% CI]) to quantify sleep associations with mortality. Models were adjusted for demographics, lifestyle factors, and medical conditions.
Results
Over an average of 6.8 years 2,973 deaths occurred (1,700 cancer, 586 CVD deaths). Overall sleep duration was significantly associated with risk for all-cause (p<0.01), cancer (p<0.01), and CVD (p=0.03) mortality. For example, when compared to sleep durations of 7.0 hrs/d, durations of 5 hrs/d were associated with a 29% higher risk for all-cause mortality (HR: 1.29 [1.09, 1.52]). WASO and number of awakenings were not associated with mortality. Individuals with L5 early or late midpoints (<2:30 or ≥3:30) had a ~20% higher risk for all-cause mortality, compared to those with intermediate L5 midpoints (3:00-3:29; p≤0.01; e.g., HR≥3:30: 1.19 [1.07, 1.32]).
Conclusions
Shorter sleep duration and both early and late sleep timing were associated with a higher mortality risk. These findings reinforce the importance of public health efforts to promote healthy sleep patterns in adults.