Association of short sleep duration and rapid decline in renal function

The kidney is influenced by circadian rhythms and is entrained to the sleep-wake cycle allowing anticipation of the metabolic and physiological demands of the kidney throughout a 24-hour cycle. Although sleep disruption has been studied extensively in cardiovascular and metabolic disease, its association with chronic kidney disease has not been shown. We examined this in a prospective cohort study of 4238 participants from the Nurses' Health Study and analyzed the association of self-reported sleep duration with decline in renal function over an 11-year period (1989 to 2000). Individuals who reported shorter sleep duration were more likely to experience a rapid decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (30% or more). Compared with sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night, the adjusted odds ratios for a rapid decline in renal function were a significant 1.79 (95% CI, 1.06-3.03) for 5 hours or less sleep per night, a significant 1.31 (95% CI, 1.01-1.71) for 6 hours sleep per night, but an insignificant 0.88 (95% CI, 0.50-1.57) for 9 or more hours sleep per night. Similarly, there was a significant trend in the adjusted annualized decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate of 1.2 ml/min/1.73 m2/year, 0.9 ml/min/1.73 m2/year, 0.8 ml/min/1.73 m2/year, and 0.8 ml/min/1.73 m2/year for individuals sleeping 5 hours or less per night, 6 hours per night, 7 to 8 hours per night, and 9 hours or more per night, respectively. Thus, shorter sleep duration is prospectively and independently associated with faster decline in renal function.