Association between Sleep Habits and Metabolically Healthy Obesity in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Higher body mass index (BMI) increases the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, but nearly a third of the people living with obesity (BMI: ≥30 kg/m²) are metabolically healthy (MHO). Extreme sleep durations and poor sleep quality are associated with higher bodyweight and cardiometabolic dysfunction, but the full extent to which sleep habits may help differentiate those with MHO versus metabolically abnormal obesity (MAO) is not yet known. Data from the U.S. National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2005-08 was used (BMI: ≥30 kg/m²; ≥20 y; N = 1,777). The absence of metabolic syndrome was used to define MHO. Those with MHO tended to be younger, female, Non-Hispanic Black, never smokers, more physically active, and with less physician diagnosed sleep disorders than MAO. Neither sleep duration nor overall sleep quality was related to MHO in crude or multivariable adjusted analyses; however, reporting "almost always" to having trouble falling asleep (OR (95% CI): 0.40 (0.20-0.78)), waking up during the night (0.38 (0.17-0.85)), feeling unrested during the day (0.35 (0.18-0.70)), and feeling overly sleepy during the day (0.35 (0.17-0.75)) was related to lower odds of MHO. Selected sleep quality factors, but not sleep quantity or overall sleep quality, are associated with the MHO phenotype.