Could Lack of Sleep Increase Risk of Metabolic Syndrome?

Getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night may be an independent risk factor for metabolic syndrome, according to a recent study.

Previous studies have suggested that chronic sleep deprivation—a growing problem in industrialized societies—is associated with negative health outcomes, including the development of metabolic abnormalities, but data on the predictive value of sleep duration to identify risk of metabolic syndrome is lacking.
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To further explore this association, researchers conducted a prospective cohort study of 2579 adults between the ages of 40 and 70 years who did not have metabolic syndrome at baseline. Researchers divided participants into groups based on total sleep duration (<6 hrs, 6-7.9 hrs, 8-9.9 hrs, ≥10 hrs).

Over an average follow-up of 2.6 years, 558 participants developed metabolic syndrome.

“The odds ratio (95% CI) for incident metabolic syndrome comparing the 6 to <8 h to the <6 h of total sleep duration was 1.41 (1.06-1.88). The corresponding odds ratios (95% CI) for high waist circumference, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, and high blood glucose were 1.30 (0.98 – 1.69), 0.75 (0.56 – 0.97), 0.82 (0.60 – 1.11), 1.56 (1.19– 2.03), and 1.31 (0.96 – 1.79), respectively.”

Researchers noted several weaknesses to their study, including relying upon participants to recall sleep habits and lifestyle behaviors, as well as a lack of data on quality of sleep.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Kim J, Yadav D, Ahn SV, et al. A prospective study of total sleep duration and incident metabolic syndrome: the ARIRANG study. Sleep Medicine. September 23, 2015 [epub ahead of print].