Association of Short Sleep Duration and Atrial Fibrillation

Short sleep may be a risk factor for atrial fibrillation. However, previous investigations have been limited by lack of objective sleep measurement and small sample size. We sought to determine the association between objectively measured sleep duration and atrial fibrillation.

All 31,079 adult patients undergoing diagnostic polysomnography from 1999 to 2015 at multiple sites within a large hospital network were identified from electronic medical records. Prevalent atrial fibrillation was identified by continuous ECG during polysomnography. Incident atrial fibrillation was identified by diagnostic codes and 12-lead ECGs. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to examine the association of sleep duration and atrial fibrillation prevalence and incidence, respectively, adjusting for age, sex, BMI, hypertension, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, heart failure, and sleep apnea severity.

We identified 404 cases of prevalent atrial fibrillation among 30,061 individuals (mean age ± SD, 51.0 ± 14.5 years; 51.6% women) undergoing polysomnography. After adjustment, each 1-h reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 1.17-fold (95% CI, 1.11-1.30) increased risk of prevalent atrial fibrillation. Among 27,589 patients without atrial fibrillation at baseline, we identified 1,820 cases of incident atrial fibrillation over 4.6 years median follow-up. After adjustment, each 1-h reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 1.09-fold (95% CI, 1.05-1.13) increased risk for incident atrial fibrillation.

Short sleep duration is independently associated with prevalent and incident atrial fibrillation. Further research is needed to determine whether interventions to extend sleep can lower atrial fibrillation risk.