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Nighttime sleep duration, daytime napping, and metabolic syndrome: findings from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

  • Epidemiology • Original Article
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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to assess the association between nighttime sleep, daytime napping, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in an elderly Chinese population.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine the association between nighttime sleep, daytime napping, and MetS (defined according to the Chinese Diabetes Society criteria). Sleep duration was assessed by a self-reported questionnaire. Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of the associations adjusting for covariates.

Results

Among 4785 elderly Chinese aged over 65 years old, there was no association between short-time sleep duration (< 7 h/day) and MetS. However, long-time sleep duration (> 8 h/day) decreased the odds of MetS by 53% (aOR= 0.47; 95% CI 0.23–0.96) compared to normal sleep duration (7–8 h/day). Compared to no daytime napping, short-time napping (≤ 30 min/day) was associated with increased odds of MetS (aOR = 1.55, 95% CI 1.02–2.36) and long-time napping (> 30 min/day) was associated with even higher odds of MetS (aOR = 1.77, 95%CI 1.24–2.53). Individuals who were over 75 years old, with elementary school education, and good health status had lower odds of MetS, while women, individuals living in rural areas, and those who reported poor health status had higher odds of MetS.

Conclusion

Long-time sleep duration decreased and daytime napping increased the risk of MetS among the elderly Chinese population. We speculate that increasing nighttime sleep duration and decreasing daytime napping may help reduce the risk of MetS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Robert Stempel College of Public Health, Florida International University, AHC5, 4th floor, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Wei Li, Prem Gautam, Rime Jebai & Semiu O. Gbadamosi

  2. School of Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, Mercer University, Savannah, GA, USA

    Anthony J. Kondracki

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Robert Stempel College of Public Health, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ning Sun

  4. School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan

  5. The Second Affiliated Hospital, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, , Fujian Province, China

    Wenjie Sun

  6. School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, 1440 Canal St, Suite 2100 , New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA

    Wenjie Sun

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  1. Wei Li
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  2. Anthony J. Kondracki
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  3. Ning Sun
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  8. Wenjie Sun
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Contributions

WL and WS conceptualized and designed the study, retrieved the data, drafted the initial manuscript, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. WL and NS carried out the analyses and reviewed the manuscript. AK, PG, MEK, RJ, and SOG helped to conceptualize the study, conducted the literature review, and provided critical revisions to the article. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Ethical approval for collecting data on human subjects was received at Peking University by their institutional review board (IRB). All participants gave their explicit written informed consent before recruitment into the study.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei Li or Wenjie Sun.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 1 Basic characteristics related to MetS among Chinese aged over 65 years old (n = 4785)
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Table 2 Logistic regression analyses evaluating the association between sleep duration, napping, and MetS (n = 4785)
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Li, W., Kondracki, A.J., Sun, N. et al. Nighttime sleep duration, daytime napping, and metabolic syndrome: findings from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Sleep Breath 26, 1427–1435 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02487-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02487-w

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