A Prospective Study of Sleep Duration and Mortality Risk in Women (original) (raw)

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1Division of Sleep Medicine

3Departments of Epidemiology

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

*Address correspondence to: Sanjay R. Patel, Sleep Disorders Research Program @ BIDMC, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115; Tel: (617) 732-8456; Fax: (617) 732-7337; E-mail: spatel@partners.org

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6Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, and the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC

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1Division of Sleep Medicine

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1Division of Sleep Medicine

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

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Eva S. Schernhammer, MD, DrPH

2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass

3Departments of Epidemiology

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

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2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

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Meir J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH

2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

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2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass

5Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass

Disclosure Statement

Dr. David White receives research grants from and is a consultant to Respironics Inc., Alfred E. Mann Foundation, Itamar Medical, LLC, and WideMed Medical. All other authors affirm the absence of any significant financial involvement in any organization with a direct commercial interest in the subject of this manuscript. In addition, no off-label or investigational use of any product has occurred as part of this work. Funding support was provided by grants CA87969, T32-HL07633, HL48531, P50-HL60292.

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Accepted:

01 November 2003

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Sanjay R. Patel, Najib T. Ayas, Mark R. Malhotra, David P. White, Eva S. Schernhammer, Frank E. Speizer, Meir J. Stampfer, Frank B. Hu, A Prospective Study of Sleep Duration and Mortality Risk in Women, Sleep, Volume 27, Issue 3, May 2004, Pages 440–444, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/27.3.440
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Abstract

Study Objectives:

It is commonly believed that 8 hours of sleep per night is optimal for good health. However, recent studies suggest the risk of death is lower in those sleeping 7 hours. We prospectively examined the association between sleep duration and mortality in women to better understand the effect of sleep duration on health.

Design:

Prospective observational study.

Participants:

Women in the Nurses Health Study who answered a mailed questionnaire asking about sleep duration in 1986.

Measurements and Results:

Vital status was ascertained through questionnaires, contact with next of kin, and the National Death Index. During the 14 years of this study (1986–2000), 5409 deaths occurred in the 82,969 women who responded to the initial questionnaire. Mortality risk was lowest among nurses reporting 7 hours of sleep per night. After adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol, exercise, depression, snoring, obesity, and history of cancer and cardiovascular disease, sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 7 hours remained associated with an increased risk of death. The relative mortality risk for sleeping 5 hours or less was 1.15 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–1.29) for 6 hours, 1.01 (95% CI, 0.94–1.08), for 7 hours, 1.00 (reference group), for 8 hours, 1.12 (95% CI, 1.05–1.20), and for 9 or more hours 1.42 (95% CI, 1.27–1.58).

Conclusions:

These results confirm previous findings that mortality risk in women is lowest among those sleeping 6 to 7 hours. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which short and long sleep times can affect health.

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Topic:

• ethanol
• obesity
• smoking
• cardiovascular diseases
• nurses' health study
• cancer
• exercise
• depressive disorders
• nurses
• personal satisfaction
• snoring
• mortality
• sleep
• community
• sleep duration

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