Potential biochemical pathways for the relationship between sleep duration and mortality

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to elucidate new evidence on the presence of a relationship among sleep duration, cardiovascular mortality and total mortality, and to investigate sleep duration-related multiple biochemical changes.MethodsThe longitudinal study is based on the SAKUCESS study of 12,489 residents of Japan aged 20–79 years at baseline.ResultsIn the study, compared to respondents who reported 7 h of sleep, long sleep duration (⩾9 h) was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality and total mortality in men, hazard ratios (HRs) were 1.70 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.07–2.70) and 2.73 (95% CI = 1.22–6.11) and an increased risk of total mortality in women, HR was 1.85 (95% CI = 1.09–3.13). Sleep duration was significantly associated with changes in blood biochemical levels. The results of the logistic regression analysis showed that the levels of multiple biochemical parameters are associated with increased risk of total mortality.ConclusionsThis is the first large longitudinal study to indicate that sleep duration was associated with changes in multiple biochemical levels in the blood and total mortality.