Sleep duration and the risk of major eye disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To assess the relationship between sleep duration and the risk of major eye disorders including myopia, glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library were searched for eligible publications before July 2021. Studies assessing the relationship between sleep duration and any one of the major eye disorders were identified. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated using random-effects models.

We identified 21 relevant articles including 777348 participants, and 17 were cross-sectional, 3 were longitudinal, and 1 was case-control. Pooled results indicated that long sleep duration was significantly associated with the risk of DR (OR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.24, 2.73), and short sleep duration was significantly associated with the risk of cataract (OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.05, 1.36). Besides, a significant relationship was observed between the risk of DR and long sleep duration per day (i.e., nighttime sleep plus daytime napping, OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.23, 2.44) rather than per night (OR = 2.17, 95% CI 0.95, 4.99). The extreme of long sleep duration (i.e., >10 h per night) increased the risk of myopia (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01, 1.04).

Inappropriate sleep duration might increase the risk of major eye disorders. The findings could contribute to the growing knowledge on the possible relationship between circadian rhythms and eye disorders.