Impact of Sleep Health Domains on Chronic Conditions: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Analysis Using Data from the...

To examine the effect of aspects of sleep health on the likelihood of the occurrence of major public health outcomes.

This is a cross-sectional study which analyzed data from 2 editions of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES; 2017-March 2020), a nationally-representative survey from the United States, with a final sample size ranging from 7,361 to 7,373 participants. Five domains of sleep health were evaluated: symptoms of sleep breathing disorders, symptoms of other sleep disorders, sleepiness, circadian misalignment (social jetlag), and chronotype (mid-sleep on free days corrected for sleep debt on workdays). The primary outcomes were the odds of being diagnosed with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, thyroid disorders, stroke, and cancer. Binary logistic regression models were used for data analysis.

The mean age of the participants was of 49.94 years. Regarding the sleep-related variables, 27.5% of the respondents reported difficulties with sleep, 47.4%, snoring, 12.3%, episodes of breathing cessation during sleep, and 25%, symptoms of daytime sleepiness. The mean social jetlag was of approximately 3 hours. Difficulties with sleep were connected with a higher odds ratio of all outcomes. Greater monthly frequency of daytime sleepiness was significantly associated with increased probability of presenting all chronic conditions. Later chronotype was related to an increased probability of developing thyroid, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Cessation of breathing during sleep was linked to cardiovascular and respiratory health issues.

Impaired sleep health, particularly insomnia and sleep apnea symptoms, as well as later chronotype, were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of being diagnosed with all the outcomes tested.