Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD1,2,3,4,9; Soomi Lee, PhD1; Miguel Marino, PhD5,6; Chloe Beverly, MS7; David M. Almeida, PhD8; Lisa Berkman, PhD4,9
1Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; 2Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; 3Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; 4Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; 5Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon; 6School of Public Health, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon; 7Division of Epidemiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; 8Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; 9Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Boston, Massachusetts
Study Objectives:
Sleep disorders and sleep deficiency can increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. Less is known about whether multiple positive attributes of sleep health known as the SATED (satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency, and duration) model, can decrease future cardiovascular disease risks. We examined whether and how a variety of indicators of sleep health predicted 10-year estimated cardiometabolic risk scores (CRS) among employed adults.
Methods:
Workers in two industries—extended care (n = 1,275) and information technology (IT; n = 577)—reported on habitual sleep apnea symptoms and sleep sufficiency, and provided 1 week of actigraphy data including nighttime sleep duration, wake after sleep onset (WASO), sleep timing, and daytime napping. Workers also provided biomarkers to calculate future cardiometabolic risk.
Results:
More sleep apnea symptoms predicted higher CRS in both industries. More sleep sufficiency, less WASO, and less daytime napping (having no naps, fewer naps, and shorter nap duration) were also linked to lower CRS, but only in the extended care workers. There was no effect of sleep duration in both industries. In the IT employee sample, shorter sleep duration (≤ 6 hours versus 6–8 hours) and more naps strengthened the link between sleep apnea and CRS.
Conclusions:
Sleep health, measured by both subjective and objective methods, was associated with lower cardiometabolic disease risks among extended care workers (lower to middle wage workers). Sleep apnea was an important predictor of CRS; for the IT workers, the link between sleep apnea and CRS was exacerbated when they had poorer sleep health behaviors.
Citation:
Buxton OM, Lee S, Marino M, Beverly C, Almeida DM, Berkman L. Sleep health and predicted cardiometabolic risk scores in employed adults from two industries. J Clin Sleep Med. 2018;14(3):371–383.