Sleep Disruption and Shift Work Associate with Increased Risk of Reproductive Endocrine Disorders: Evidence from UK...

Area of Science:

• Reproductive endocrinology
• Sleep medicine
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Disrupted sleep and shift work are linked to adverse health outcomes, but their association with reproductive endocrine disorders (REDs) remains unclear.
• Understanding this relationship is crucial due to the increasing prevalence of sleep disturbances and shift work.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the impact of sleep traits and shift work on RED risk in women.
• Explore the role of inflammatory mediation in these associations.
• Assess potential causality using Mendelian randomization (MR).

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 244,561 women from the UK Biobank, with self-reported sleep and shift work data.
• Cox models and interaction analyses to assess risk and joint effects.
• Mediation analyses for inflammatory biomarkers and two-sample MR for causal inference.

Main Results:

• Short (≤5h) and long (≥9h) sleep durations, poor sleep quality, and night shift work independently increased RED risk.
• The combination of night shift work and short sleep duration showed the highest risk (HR=1.72).
• Inflammatory markers (neutrophils, CRP, leukocytes) partially mediated these associations (5-13%).

Conclusions:

• Abnormal sleep duration, insomnia, and night shift work are independent risk factors for REDs in women.
• Inflammation partially mediates these associations, with the highest risk observed in women with short sleep and night shift work.
• MR analyses provide genetic evidence for the causal role of short sleep, insomnia, and daytime napping in REDs, emphasizing the need for sleep and shift work screening in RED risk assessment.