Sleep Duration and Snoring at Midlife in Relation to Healthy Aging in Women 70 Years of Age or Older

• Main Authors: Shi H, Huang T, Ma Y, Eliassen AH, Sun Q, Wang M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2021-03-01
• Series: Nature and Science of Sleep
• Subjects: sleep; healthy aging; prospective studies; nurses’ health study; snoring
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/sleep-duration-and-snoring-at-midlife-in-relation-to-healthy-aging-in--peer-reviewed-article-NSS

Hongying Shi,1,2 Tianyi Huang,3,4 Yanan Ma,5 A Heather Eliassen,2,3 Qi Sun,2– 4 Molin Wang2,3,6 1Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; 3Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 4Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; 5Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USACorrespondence: Molin WangDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USATel [phone]Email [e-mail] SunDepartment of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USATel [phone]Email [e-mail]: Both short and long sleep durations are associated with higher mortality. This study examined the association between sleep duration and overall health among those who survive to older ages.Participants and Methods: In the Nurses’ Health Study, participants without major chronic diseases in 1986 and survived to age 70 years or older in 1995– 2001 were included. Habitual sleep duration and snoring were self-reported in 1986. Healthy aging was defined as being free of 11 major chronic diseases and having no cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or mental health limitations. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for healthy aging.Results: Of the 12,304 participants, 1354 (11.0%) achieved healthy aging. We observed a non-linear association between sleep duration and the odds of achieving healthy aging. Compared with women sleeping 7 hours per day, women with longer sleep duration were less likely to achieve healthy aging; there was also a suggestion of lower odds of healthy aging for shorter sleepers, although the associations did not reach statistical significance: the multivariate-adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of healthy aging for those sleeping ≤ 5, 6, 8, and ≥ 9 hours were 0.94 (0.70, 1.27), 0.88 (0.76, 1.02), 0.83 (0.72, 0.96), and 0.60 (0.43, 0.84), respectively. Similar non-linear associations were consistently observed for individual dimensions of healthy aging. Regular snoring was associated with 31% lower odds of healthy aging (95% CI: 0.54, 0.88), which was primarily due to lower odds of having no major chronic diseases.Conclusion: Both short and long sleep durations as well as regular snoring at midlife were associated with lower odds of healthy aging in later life.Keywords: sleep, healthy aging, prospective studies, Nurses’ Health Study, snoring