A pilot prospective study of sleep patterns and DNA methylation-characterized epigenetic aging in young adults

Abstract

Objective Molecular markers in DNA methylation at a subset of CpG sites are affected by the environment and contribute to biological (epigenetic) age. We hypothesized that shorter sleep duration and possibly irregular sleep would be associated with accelerated epigenetic aging. We examined epigenetic vs. chronological age in 12 young women selected as shorter or longer sleepers studied prospectively across the first 9 weeks of college using a daily online sleep log. Genomic DNA was isolated from two blood samples spanning the interval, and DNA methylation levels were determined and used to measure epigenetic age. Results Epigenetic vs. chronological age differences averaged 2.07 at Time 1 and 1.21 at Time 2. Sleep duration was computed as average daily total sleep time and sleep regularity was indexed using the Sleep Regularity Index. Participants with longer and more regular sleep showed reduced age difference: mean = − 2.48 [95% CI − 6.11; 1.15]; those with shorter and more irregular sleep showed an increased age difference: 3.03 [0.02; 6.03]; and those with either shorter or more irregular sleep averaged no significant change: − 0.49 [− 3.55; 2.56]. These pilot data suggest that short and irregular sleep, even in a young healthy sample, may be associated with accelerated epigenetic aging.

Potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle intervention: a pilot randomized clinical trial

“…Acceleration of the DNAmAge clock has been associated with insomnia in a sample of 2078 women [ 27 ]. Carskadon et al [ 28 ] found an association between poor quality / fewer hours of sleep with age acceleration in a small sample of 12 female college students.…”

Reversal of Epigenetic Age with Diet and Lifestyle in a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Acceleration of the DNAmAge clock has been associated with insomnia in a sample of 2078 women (Carroll et al, 2017). Carskadon et al (2019) found an association between poor quality / fewer hours of sleep with age acceleration in a small sample of 12 female college students.…”

Editorial Perspective: Adolescents’ fragile sleep—shining light on a time of risk to mental health

“…Of course, this finding does not indicate that these genes are involved in psychological function, merely that they were differentially modified in shorter sleepers. More recently, we showed that epigenetic modifications of DNA obtained from blood samples before and after sleep phenotyping occurred in relation to the combination of short and irregular sleep (Carskadon et al, 2019) and that these changes combined to signify ‘epigenetic aging’ in these young adults. Again, these data do not indicate a direct connection to psychopathology; however, future studies that have larger samples and that assess specific pathways affected may be able to provide connections.…”