The association between sleep duration, body mass index and metabolic measures in the Hordaland Health Study

Abstract

SUMMARY Several studies show that short self-reported sleep duration is associated with elevated body mass index (BMI). Short sleep duration may change appetite hormones, but whether this also influences metabolic measures like cholesterol and triglycerides is less clear. Furthermore, obesity is linked to increases in blood pressure, and recently, short sleep duration has been shown to be an independent risk factor for hypertension. This is a population-based cross-sectional study (The Hordaland Health Study). A subgroup of 8860 subjects, aged 40-45 years, answered a sleep questionnaire. Body weight, height and blood pressure were measured, and non-fasting blood samples were collected and analyzed for total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. Sleep duration was divided into the following subgroups: <5, 5-5.99, 6-6.99, 7-7.99, 8-8.99 and ‡9 h. The results show that short sleep duration was associated with elevated BMI and increased prevalence of obesity. Similar to BMI, levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in subjects with short sleep duration. This covariation seemed to be attributed to variables like gender, smoking and BMI. In conclusion, our study confirms a clear association between short sleep duration and elevated BMI and obesity. Furthermore, levels of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure were associated with sleep duration.k e y w o r d s blood pressure,

Consequences of sleep deprivation

“…This was attributed to the decreased concentration of leptin, a hormone inhibiting appetite and hunger and inducing higher energy expenditure, and a higher level of ghrelin, acting in an opposite direction to leptin [80]. In contrast to the animal findings, a relationship between reduced sleep and obesity was observed in humans [81][82][83]. Obesity was accompanied by lower energy expenditure and impaired glucose metabolism leading to diabetic condition [19,80].…”

“…Such effects lead to decreased accuracy and effectiveness 101 tendency to go to bed at earlier hours, while in the older ones, to wake up later in the morning. Studies carried out on a large population of forty-yearolds of both genders [83] corroborated the existence of a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and BMI or blood concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides, which indicates that the risk of overweight is considerably more dependent on the reduction of sleep time. The recently published results of a six-year research [85] indicate even more clearly that both the reduced and prolonged sleep time contribute to body mass gain.…”

Relationship between sleep duration and the metabolic syndrome: Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey 2001

“…9,10 Altogether, the data suggest that sleep duration may be an important risk factor for the metabolic syndrome. Although scanty previous reports showed an association between sleep duration and several components of the metabolic syndrome, 11 to our knowledge, there are no previous reports on a direct relationship between sleep duration and the metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, most previous studies on sleep duration and components of the metabolic syndrome have been based on a Caucasian population.…”

Breaks in Sedentary Time

“…Future experimental research is needed to examine the effects of manipulating interruptions to sedentary time on acute met- abolic changes. Additionally, given that sleep duration has been associated with metabolic risk (32), future studies on the effects of sedentary time accumulation in free-living populations should also include a measure of sleep duration. In this study, we report the association of breaks in sedentary time with metabolic risk adjusted for total sedentary time.…”