The association between sleep duration and lipid profiles: the NHANES 2013-2014

In the current literature, the association between sleep and different lipids is inconsistent. We aimed to assess the association of sleep with HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL cholesterol in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2013/2014.

We included 2705 participants from NHANES, 2013/2014. Cross-sectional information was measured on sleep duration and HDL cholesterol/triglyceride/LDL cholesterol. Generalized additive models (GAM) were constructed to assess the smooth relationship between the HDL cholesterol/triglyceride/LDL cholesterol, and the sleep duration. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race, marital status, household size, sitting time and physical activity. Effective degree of freedom (EDF) value in GAM indicated the amount of non-linearity of the smooth. EDF = 1 was indicative of a linear pattern of association. A value greater than 1 denoted a more complex association between outcome and sleep duration.

The highest mean HDL cholesterol level was observed in participants sleeping 8 h/day. There was a significant non-linear association between sleep duration and HDL cholesterol in unadjusted GAM (EDF = 2.58, P = 0.002) and adjusted GAM (EDF = 1.85, P = 0.003). The lowest mean triglyceride level was observed in people sleeping 6 h/day. There was a significant non-linear association between sleep duration and triglyceride in unadjusted GAM (EDF = 3.05, P = 0.02) and adjusted GAM (EDF = 1.78, P = 0.02). There was no significant non-linear association between sleep duration and LDL cholesterol in either unadjusted GAM (EDF = 1.01, P = 0.2) or adjusted GAM (EDF = 1.01, P = 0.8).

Short sleep duration was associated with low HDL cholesterol/high triglyceride. Further longitudinal studies are warranted to shed extra light on this relationship.