Associations between sleep-behavioral traits and healthspan: A one-sample Mendelian randomization study based on 388,909 participants of the UK-Biobank

Abstract

Background: Although the association between sleep behavior and morbidity and mortality risk has been reported before, there is still uncertainty whether the observed associations are causal or confounding. Therefore, we investigated the causal relationships between sleep-behavioral traits and terminated healthspan risk using Mendelian randomization (MR).

Methods: We conducted a one-sample MR analysis to evaluate causality between six sleep-behavioral traits (sleep duration, chronotype/morningness, napping, sleeplessness/insomnia, and getting up from bed) and risk of healthspan termination among 388, 909 UK Biobank (UKB) participants. Instrumental variables for sleep behaviors (N = 590) were obtained from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We defined healthspan based on eight predominant health-terminating events associated with longevity (congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, dementia, diabetes, cancer, and death). We further constructed a sleep score and a weighted genetic risk score to increase the predictive ability of the sleep-behavioral traits. Cox regression models and Inverse Probability Treatment Weighting (IPTW) were implemented, followed by MR to assess causation. We used inverse-variance-weighted MR to estimate causal effects, and weighted-median and MR-egger for sensitivity analysis to test the pleiotropic effects.

Results: In IPTW, we observed a decreased risk of terminated healthspan for healthy sleep behaviors such as 'sleep duration 7-8h/d' (Hazard ratio, HR = 0.93; 95 % confidence interval, CI: 0.92-0.96; P < 0.001); 'morningness' (HR = 0.95; 95%CI: 0.93-0.98; P < 0.01); 'napping' (HR = 0.93; 95%CI: 0.91-0.94; P < 0.001); 'easy getting up from bed' (HR = 0.91; 95%CI: 0.88-0.93; P < 0.001); and, 'never/rarely experience sleeplessness/insomnia' (HR = 0.94; 95%CI: 0.92-0.96; P < 0.001). MR results further indicated causal associations between healthy sleep duration (OR = 0.98; 95%CI: 0.97-1.00; P = 0.036) and insomnia (OR = 1.02; 95%CI: 1.01-1.03; P < 0.001) with terminated healthspan. MR-egger did not suggest any potential pleiotropy.

Conclusion: This study supports abnormal sleep duration and insomnia as potential causal risk factors for terminated healthspan. Thus, healthy sleep behavior is valuable for the extension of healthspan, and well-designed and tailored sleep health interventions are warranted.

Keywords: Causal inference; Hazard risk; Healthspan; Mendelian randomization; Sleep-behavioral traits.