Sleep duration and cardiovascular risk: results of the large-scale epidemiology study ESSE-RF

Background: The recent data suggest that sleep disorders are associated with cardiovascular diseases. We assessed the relation between self-reported sleep duration and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders in the large-scale epidemiological study. Methods: The ESSE-RF is a population-based cross-sectional study involving 22258 participants aged 25–64 years from 13 regions of the Russian Federation. In 2012-2014, all subjects underwent a structured interview including questions about average daily sleep duration, lifestyle, complaints and diseases. The current analyses considered the associations with the following disorders: obesity, hypertension, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, stroke (cerebral thrombosis or hemorrhage) and diabetes mellitus. Results: Altogether 20,359 respondents were included in the final analysis. The mean self-reported sleep duration was 7.0 h per night: 23.3% participants reported sleeping less than 6 h while 4.5% subjects slept more than 9 h. We found both short and long sleep duration to be associated with self-reported cardiovascular diseases. The association was independent of age, sex, body mass index, blood pressure, lipids and glucose levels. The multivariable odds were higher for obesity in short-sleepers compared to those sleeping 7-8 h. In the meanwhile, the association was U-shaped for coronary artery disease. A J-shaped relation was found for myocardial infarction. No relation was found for hypertension, diabetes mellitus or stroke. Conclusions: Differences in sleep duration may have health consequences given associations between short and long sleep duration and cardiometabolic outcomes.