More REM sleep linked to lower risk of 83 diseases in UK Biobank study
A study of 95,559 UK Biobank participants found that more REM sleep, estimated from wrist-device data collected over seven days, was associated with lower risk of 83 diseases over a median 8.9 years. The researchers, whose findings were published in PLOS Medicine, also linked six to eight hours of sleep with the lowest risk for 69 conditions; the observational study cannot show that sleep patterns cause or prevent disease.
Bottom line — The study linked less than five hours of sleep to increased risk of 37 conditions, but did not establish cause and effect.
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According to the study, each additional 47.6 minutes of REM sleep was associated with lower risks of Parkinson’s disease, dementia and heart failure.
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Medscape reports hazard ratios of 0.20 for Parkinson’s, 0.54 for dementia and 0.74 for heart failure for greater REM sleep.
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More deep sleep was associated with lower risk of seven conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depressive disorder, the researchers found.
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Greater night-to-night sleep irregularity and wakefulness after sleep onset were associated with higher risks of several conditions, including anxiety and substance use disorders.
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Medscape notes that wrist accelerometers estimate sleep stages from movement rather than directly measuring brain activity or eye movements.
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The researchers caution that sleep disruption may contribute to disease, result from underlying illness or reflect shared risk factors.