Association of weekend catch-up sleep with the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk score: a hypothesis-generating study from U.S. and Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Study objectives: A proportion of the populations sleeps longer on the weekends. We investigated a possible association between weekend catch up sleep (WCUS) and a known index of later development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). We tested for an association of WCUS and ASCVD risk scores in 2 existing datasets.

Methods: We analyzed national data from the 2019-2021 KNHANES (n = 11,502) and the 2017-2020 NHANES (n = 2,135). WCUS duration from self-reported questionnaires was categorized as ≤0 hours, >0-1 hours, 1-2 hours, and >2 hours. The ASCVD risk score estimating a 10-year risk of ASCVD events was categorized into low (<7.5%), intermediate (7.5%-20%), and high (≥20%) groups.

Results: WCUS (>2 hours) was inversely associated with the high ASCVD risk group in the KNHANES (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.08-0.45), but not in the NHANES. The inverse association of WCUS (>2 hours) with the high ASCVD risk group was shown only in the KNHANES, independent of weekday sleep duration (aOR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.07-0.51 for <6 hours; aOR = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.07-0.39 for ≥6-8 hours; aOR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03-0.63 for ≥8 hours). However, WCUS (>2 hours) showed no significant association with the high ASCVD risk group in weekday sleep duration subgroups.

Conclusions: The apparent association between WCUS and ASCVD in an existing dataset underscore the need to investigate WCUS in prospective studies.