The Interplay between nighttime/midday sleep duration and the number of new-onset chronic diseases: A decade-long prospective study in China

Objective

To investigate the interplay between individual nighttime and midday sleep duration and the number of new-onset chronic diseases and determine the optimal sleep duration associated with lowest number of new-onset chronic diseases.

Methods

We used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) covering a decade and involving 10,828 participants. A random intercept cross-lagged model was used to explore the interplay between nighttime/midday sleep durations and new-onset chronic diseases at both the within-individual and between-individual levels, followed by a dose–response analysis at the between-individual level to determine the optimal sleep duration. New-onset chronic diseases include 14 types of self-reported diseases diagnosed by doctors.

Results

Within-individual analysis revealed that increased nighttime/midday sleep duration led to a higher number of new-onset chronic diseases, and an increased number of new-onset chronic diseases resulted in decreased nighttime sleep duration. Between nighttime and midday sleep, one type of sleep duration increase was likely to lead to an increase in another type. Between-individual analysis found a nonlinear relationship between the number of new-onset chronic diseases and nighttime sleep duration, identifying the optimal nighttime sleep duration as 7.46 h.

Conclusions

These findings elucidate the interplay between sleep duration and number of new-onset chronic diseases and underscore the need for public awareness and comprehensive interventions. Future studies should focus on refining sleep monitoring and exploring the sleep–chronic diseases nexus in greater depth.