Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Mar 15;15(3):393-400.
doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7660.

Sleep and the Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Cohort Study

Yacong Bo  1 , Eng-Kiong Yeoh  1 , Cui Guo  1 , Zilong Zhang  1 , Tony Tam  2 , Ta-Chien Chan  3   4 , Ly-Yun Chang  5   6 , Xiang Qian Lao  1   7
Affiliations

Sleep and the Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Cohort Study

Yacong Bo et al. J Clin Sleep Med. .

Abstract

Study objectives: Little information is available regarding the effect of sleep on the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This large-cohort study aimed to investigate the association between sleep and the incidence of CKD.

Methods: We recruited 194,039 participants without CKD aged 20 years or older between 1996 and 2014. Incident CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate of < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Information about sleep duration and quality was obtained from a questionnaire and used to generate a score reflecting the sleep profile. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for CKD associations with sleep duration, quality, and score categories.

Results: Regarding sleep duration, participants who slept for fewer than 4 hours (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.22-1.71), 4 to 6 hours (1.07, 1.02-1.14), or more than 8 hours (1.12, 1.04-1.21) had an increased risk of incident CKD, compared to those who slept 6 to 8 hours. Regarding sleep quality, participants who fell asleep but awoke easily (1.13, 1.07-1.19), had difficulty falling asleep (1.14, 1.06-1.22), or used sleeping pills or sedatives (1.14, 1.20-1.66) had a higher risk of incident CKD, compared to those who slept well. Furthermore, participants with sleep scores of 4 to 6 (1.07, 1.02-1.13) and less than 4 (1.61, 1.37-1.89) had an increased risk of incident CKD, compared to those with a sleep score higher than 6.

Conclusions: A poor sleep profile is associated with increased risk of CKD development. Therefore, sleep duration and quality should be considered when developing strategies to improve sleep and thus prevent CKD.

Commentary: A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 371.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease; eGFR; estimated glomerular filtration rate; sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flowchart of participant selection.
CKD = chronic kidney disease, eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Levey AS, Coresh J. Chronic kidney disease. Lancet. 2012;379(9811):165–180. - PubMed
    1. Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2016;388(10053):1459–1544. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jha V, Garcia-Garcia G, Iseki K, et al. Chronic kidney disease: global dimension and perspectives. Lancet. 2013;382(9888):260–272. - PubMed
    1. Couser WG, Remuzzi G, Mendis S, Tonelli M. The contribution of chronic kidney disease to the global burden of major noncommunicable diseases. Kidney Int. 2011;80(12):1258–1270. - PubMed
    1. Gansevoort RT, Correa-Rotter R, Hemmelgarn BR, et al. Chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk: epidemiology, mechanisms, and prevention. Lancet. 2013;382(9889):339–352. - PubMed

Publication types