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Clinical Studies and Practice

The association between sleep patterns and obesity in older adults

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, pages 1159–1164 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background:

Reduced sleep duration has been increasingly reported to predict obesity. However, timing and regularity of sleep may also be important. In this study, the cross-sectional association between objectively measured sleep patterns and obesity was assessed in two large cohorts of older individuals.

Methods:

Wrist actigraphy was performed in 3053 men (mean age: 76.4 years) participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study and 2985 women (mean age: 83.5 years) participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. Timing and regularity of sleep patterns were assessed across nights, as well as daytime napping.

Results:

Greater night-to-night variability in sleep duration and daytime napping were associated with obesity independent of mean nocturnal sleep duration in both men and women. Each 1 h increase in the standard deviation of nocturnal sleep duration increased the odds of obesity 1.63-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.31–2.02) among men and 1.22-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.01–1.47) among women. Each 1 h increase in napping increased the odds of obesity 1.23-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.12–1.37) in men and 1.29-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.17–1.41) in women. In contrast, associations between later sleep timing and night-to-night variability in sleep timing with obesity were less consistent.

Conclusions:

In both older men and women, variability in nightly sleep duration and daytime napping were associated with obesity, independent of mean sleep duration. These findings suggest that characteristics of sleep beyond mean sleep duration may have a role in weight homeostasis, highlighting the complex relationship between sleep and metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant HL098297. The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study was supported by National Institutes of Health funding. The following institutes provided support: the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research under the following grant numbers: U01 AR045580, U01 AR045614, U01 AR045632, U01 AR045647, U01 AR045654, U01 AR045583, U01 AG018197, U01 AG027810 and UL1 TR000128. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) provided funding for the MrOS Sleep ancillary study ‘Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men’ under the following grant numbers: HL071194, HL070848, HL070847, HL070842, HL070841, HL070837, HL070838 and HL070839. The SOF was supported by National Institutes of Health funding. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) provided support under the following grant numbers: R01 AG005407, R01 AR35582, R01 AR35583, R01 AR35584, R01 AG005394, R01 AG027574 and R01 AG027576.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    S R Patel

  2. Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA

    A L Hayes

  3. California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA

    T Blackwell, D S Evans & K L Stone

  4. Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    S Ancoli-Israel

  5. Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Y K Wing

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for the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) and the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) Research Groups

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Correspondence to S R Patel.

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Patel, S., Hayes, A., Blackwell, T. et al. The association between sleep patterns and obesity in older adults. Int J Obes 38, 1159–1164 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2014.13

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