Associations of sleep duration and quality with risk of incident obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome: Results from the Midlife in the United States study

Understanding how sleep affects the risk of incident chronic conditions in midlife may reinforce the importance of a healthy sleep pattern for healthy aging and cardiometabolic health. The objective of the study was to examine associations of sleep duration and quality with incident obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in mid-aged adults. Participants without obesity (<i>n</i> = 381), diabetes (<i>n</i> = 509), or metabolic syndrome (<i>n</i> = 487) from the Biomarker Projects in Midlife in the United States study were examined separately for baseline sleep duration and quality and their associations with incident obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome after an average follow-up of 12 years. There was no significant association between baseline sleep duration and any of the incident conditions at follow-up (<i>p</i> > 0.05 for all). However, participants with poor baseline sleep quality had a higher risk of incident obesity (odds ratio (OR) = 1.798, 95% confidence interval (CI)=(1.001, 3.229), <i>p</i> = 0.0497) and incident diabetes (OR = 2.499, 95% CI=(1.160, 5.383), <i>p</i> = 0.0194) at follow-up than those with good sleep quality. There was no significant association between sleep quality and incident metabolic syndrome (OR = 0.881, 95% CI=(0.547, 1.420), <i>p</i> = 0.6031). In conclusion, sleep quality was associated with incident obesity and diabetes; maintaining a healthy sleep pattern in midlife may help reduce risk for these chronic conditions.