[Association between sleep and leukocyte telomere length in middle-aged and older adults]

Objective: To understand the association between peripheral leukocytes telomere length (TL) and sleep in middle-aged and old adults. Methods: A total of 176 middle-aged and old adults were investigated by using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and questionnaire. TL was measured by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The correlation and regression analysis between sleep and telomere length was performed. Results: TL had a mean T/S ratio of 0.995±0.23. There was a negative correlation between TL and age (r=-0.241, P=0.003). With increasing age, sleep quality became worse (r=-0.230, P<0.01), the time to fall asleep became longer (r=0.227, P<0.01), sleep duration was shorter (r=-0.486, P<0.01), sleep efficiency became worse (r=-0.226, P<0.01). After controlling for the effects of gender, age, marital status, income level, residence, smoking, drinking, physical exercise and disease status, multiple linear regression analysis indicated that sleep quality (β=0.057, P<0.01), time to fall asleep (β=-0.046, P<0.01), sleep duration (β=0.086, P<0.01) were independent influencing factors of telomere length, suggesting that the people who had better sleep quality, the shorter time to fall asleep, the longer sleep time would have longer telomere length. Conclusions: Sleep is a relevant factor affecting TL in middle-aged and elderly population. Good sleep may delay aging by slowing TL. We encourage to conduct health education about the importance of sleep quality in community.