Takeaway
- A healthy sleep pattern was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause mortality and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer.
Why this matters
- Findings emphasise that improving overall sleep behaviours rather than modifying individual sleep habits may lower the risk of premature deaths.
Study design
- A prospective study involving 283,443 participants without CVD and cancer from the UK Biobank.
- A healthy sleep score and sleep patterns were derived through a combination of 5 individual sleep behaviours.
- Funding: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.
Key results
- Overall, 168,878 (59.6%) of the participants reported a healthy sleep pattern (sleep score, 4-5), 108,439 (38.3%) reported an intermediate sleep pattern (sleep score, 2-3) and 6126 (2.2%) reported an unfavourable sleep pattern (sleep score, ≤1).
- During a mean follow-up of 8.9 years (2.5 million person-years), 7936 all-cause deaths were reported, of which 762 were caused by CVD and 4540 were caused by cancer.
- After adjusting for confounders, a 1 point increase of the healthy sleep score was associated with lower risks of (adjusted HR [aHR]; 95% CI):
- all-cause mortality (0.94; 0.92-0.96);
- CVD mortality (0.89; 0.83-0.95); and
- cancer mortality (0.96; 0.93-0.99).
- Participants with a favourable sleep pattern vs those with an unfavourable sleep pattern had lower risks of (aHR; 95% CI):
- all-cause mortality (0.76; 0.67-0.86); and
- CVD mortality (0.58; 0.40-0.84).
- The association between healthy sleep score and all-cause mortality was stronger in participants with (aHR; 95% CI):
- below normal body mass index (0.74; 0.64-0.85); and
- low physical activity (0.91; 0.87-0.95).
Limitations
- Observational design.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
