The Association of Sleeping Duration and Sleep Problems With All-Cause Mortality Among a Cohort of Industrial Workers Followed Up for 36 Years.

Abstract

Background: Sleep duration is a well-established factor associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. Poor sleep quality was also suggested to affect all-cause mortality risk among adults. The Cardiovascular Occupational Risk Factor determination in Israel Study (CORDIS) is a prospective cohort study of industrial workers who entered the study during 1985-1990 and have been followed for 36 years. We examined the relationship between sleep duration, sleeping problems and difficulties, and all-cause mortality in the CORDIS cohort.

Method: Self-reported data, including sleep duration and sleeping problems, from 7287 participants were merged with data on all-cause mortality obtained from the National Death Registry and the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Results: Over the 36-year follow-up, 2159 participants died: 445 were < 45 years and 1714 were ≥ 45 years. Sleep duration of ≤ 5 h significantly increased mortality risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.30, p = 0.0032), with a more pronounced effect in those < 45 years (HR = 1.55, p = 0.0028). Sleeping problems also increased mortality risk (HR = 1.30, p = 0.0088), with a stronger association among younger individuals (HR = 1.63, p = 0.0399). Conversely, difficulty sleeping when anticipating something unpleasant was linked to increased mortality only in those aged ≥ 45 years (HR = 1.17, p = 0.0440).

Conclusions: Our analysis showed that short sleep duration and sleeping problems are significant predictors for all-cause mortality, particularly in younger individuals (< 45 years). These results emphasize the importance of addressing sleep problems among different age groups to potentially reduce mortality risk.