Gender and racial/ethnic differences in sleep duration in the North Texas heart study

Abstract

Objective Short sleep duration has been linked with a wide array of poor mental and physical health outcomes. Such risks, however, may be moderated by demographic factors such as gender and race/ethnicity. In a diverse community sample, the current study examined the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity and objectively measured sleep duration, controlling for select potential confounds. Methods Participants were 300 community adults (50% female), aged 21 to 70 years, and included 60% non-Hispanic Whites, 15% non-Hispanic Blacks, 19% Hispanic/Latino, and 6% Other. As part of a larger study, participants wore an actigraphy device over two nights to assess sleep duration (averaged across both nights). Gender and race/ethnicity were used as grouping variables in a two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) predicting objectively assessed total sleep time, with age, income and employment status as covariates. Results On average, males slept 34 min less than females (p=0.002). After controlling for socioeconomic factors, there was a gender by race/ethnicity interaction (p=0.030). Within males, Hispanics slept 45 min less than non-Hispanic Whites (p=.002) and 57 min less than non-Hispanic Others (p=.008). Males also slept significantly less than females within the non-Hispanic White (difference=−22.9; p=.016) and the Hispanic (difference=−77.1; p<.001) groups. Conclusions Extending previous research, the current study provides additional evidence for differences in objective sleep duration based on gender and race/ethnicity in daily life. These data suggest that risk associated with sleep duration is patterned in important ways across gender and race/ethnicity; such information can be used to tailor prevention efforts.

Pulling the covers in electronic health records for an association study with self-reported sleep behaviors

“…Specifically, sleep durations tended to be longer in females and whites, which has been observed in prior studies (Dietch et al 2017; Lauderdale et al 2006). Weekday-to-weekend sleep midpoint shift, i.e.…”

“…Gender and race did not explain social sleep lag, which may reflect broader cultural norms and chronotype shifts in younger individuals regardless of background. The average weekend sleep duration of 8.59 hours closely matches sleep durations from other studies based on self-reported data (Fischer et al 2017; Koopman et al 2017; Liu et al 2012; Rutters et al 2014), which commonly overestimates sleep duration compared with objective measures such as actigraphy (Arora et al 2013; Dietch et al 2017; Lauderdale et al 2006; Silva et al 2007). Well-established trends in both objective and subjective sleep analyses demonstrate whites sleep upwards of 45 minutes longer than blacks (Dietch et al 2017; Lauderdale et al 2006), and women sleep upwards of 30 minutes longer than men (Dietch et al 2017; Lauderdale et al 2006; Liu et al 2012; Urbanek et al 2017), which are all consistent with our findings.…”

“…In fact, associations of sleep with age, gender, race and metabolic parameters such as body mass index (BMI) are largely consistent, regardless of how the sleep metrics are acquired (Dietch et al 2017; Fischer et al 2017; Hashizaki et al 2015; Lauderdale et al 2006; Liu et al 2012; Ohayon et al 2004; Rutters et al 2014; Silva et al 2007; Urbanek et al 2017). Questionnaires such as the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (Horne and Ostberg 1976) and Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (Roenneberg et al 2003) are common approaches to gauge an individual’s preferred schedule of activity and rest (i.e.…”

Pulling the covers in electronic health records for an association study with self-reported sleep behaviors

“…2, Supplementary Files 1-2). Specifically, sleep durations tended to be longer in females and whites, which has been observed in prior studies (Lauderdale et al 2006;Dietch et al 2017) . Weekday-to-weekend sleep midpoint shift, i.e.…”

“…While controlled studies with objective sleep measures provide the strongest evidence for the consequences of sleep disruption, such as the impact on mental health (Minkel et al 2012) , these associations have also been observed through the use of simple questionnaires (Konttinen et al 2014;Gylen et al 2014;de Souza & Hidalgo 2015;An et al 2015) . In fact, associations of sleep with age, gender, race, and metabolic parameters such as body mass index (BMI) are largely consistent, regardless of how the sleep metrics are acquired (Ohayon et al 2004;Lauderdale et al 2006;Silva et al 2007;Liu et al 2012;Rutters et al 2014;Hashizaki et al 2015;Fischer et al 2017;Dietch et al 2017;Urbanek et al 2017) . Questionnaires such as the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (Horne & Ostberg 1976) and Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (Roenneberg et al 2003) are common approaches to gauge an individual's morning or evening preference (i.e., "chronotype"), and are correlated with underlying physiology, including endogenous temperature cycles (Baehr et al 2000) and dim-light melatonin onset (Kantermann et al 2015) .…”