Takeaway
- Among adolescent girls, staying up late and having shifting sleep schedules on weekends compared with weekdays is associated with increased risk for adiposity and cardiometabolic disruptions.
- This association was not seen in boys, suggesting greater vulnerability among girls to obesity risk with sleep-wake disruption.
Why this matters
- Editorial: calls the evidence "compelling" and suggests tailoring messages about earlier sleep time as a way to improve weight status.
Key results
- The authors found no associations for any of the metabolic or weight outcomes and sleep among boys.
- For girls, increasing late evening preference was linked to:
- Higher waist circumference: Pinteraction=.04.
- Higher fat-mass index: Pinteraction=.03.
- For girls, greater "social jet lag," or sleep-wake schedule shifts during the week, also was linked to:
- Higher waist circumference: Pinteraction=.21.
- Higher fat-mass index: Pinteraction=.01.
- The authors found no associations in cardiometabolic risk score analyses, but say the power was low.
Study design
- Adolescents (418 girls, 386 boys; aged 12-17 [mean, 13.2] years) participated from January 2012 to October 2016 in 5+ days of measurement-taking (e.g., actigraphy) and completing questionnaires about sleep preferences.
- Outcomes included adiposity, cholesterol, BP, waist circumference.
- Funding: NIH, others.
Limitations
- Cross-sectional study, so no causation established.
References
References