U-shaped association between sleep duration with chronic constipation and diarrhea: A population-based study.

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Sleep Medicine
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Chronic constipation affects a significant portion of the population, impacting quality of life.
• Sleep duration is a modifiable lifestyle factor with potential implications for gastrointestinal health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between varying sleep durations and the prevalence of chronic constipation and diarrhea.
• To identify optimal sleep durations for maintaining normal bowel function.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 14,054 participants in The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2010).
• Employed restricted cubic spline (RCS) curves to model nonlinear associations between sleep duration and constipation/diarrhea.
• Applied multivariate logistic regression to assess the risk of constipation across different sleep duration groups.

Main Results:

• Seven hours of sleep per day was associated with the highest proportion of normal stool forms (86.3%).
• Sleep durations of ≤4 hours and ≥10 hours were linked to a significantly increased risk of chronic constipation (54% and 90% higher, respectively) compared to 7 hours.
• RCS models revealed a significant U-shaped, nonlinear association between sleep duration and constipation risk, with 7 hours as the optimal point.

Conclusions:

• Both short sleep duration (≤4 hours) and long sleep duration (≥10 hours) are independently associated with an elevated risk of chronic constipation.
• Maintaining a sleep duration of approximately 7 hours per night may be beneficial for reducing the risk of constipation.