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Sleep duration and the risk of major eye disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Eye (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

To assess the relationship between sleep duration and the risk of major eye disorders including myopia, glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Methods

Databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library were searched for eligible publications before July 2021. Studies assessing the relationship between sleep duration and any one of the major eye disorders were identified. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated using random-effects models.

Results

We identified 21 relevant articles including 777348 participants, and 17 were cross-sectional, 3 were longitudinal, and 1 was case-control. Pooled results indicated that long sleep duration was significantly associated with the risk of DR (OR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.24, 2.73), and short sleep duration was significantly associated with the risk of cataract (OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.05, 1.36). Besides, a significant relationship was observed between the risk of DR and long sleep duration per day (i.e., nighttime sleep plus daytime napping, OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.23, 2.44) rather than per night (OR = 2.17, 95% CI 0.95, 4.99). The extreme of long sleep duration (i.e., >10 h per night) increased the risk of myopia (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01, 1.04).

Conclusions

Inappropriate sleep duration might increase the risk of major eye disorders. The findings could contribute to the growing knowledge on the possible relationship between circadian rhythms and eye disorders.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: Forest plot showing the association between long sleep duration and major eye disorders.
Fig. 3: Forest plot showing the association between short sleep duration and major eye disorders.
Fig. 4: Subgroup analyses for specific definitions of short-and-long sleep duration.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82122059).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Miao Zhou, Dan-Lin Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Miao Zhou, Dan-Lin Li, Jia-Yan Kai & Chen-Wei Pan

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China

    Miao Zhou

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Therapy of Retinal and Choroid Diseases, Beijing, China

    Miao Zhou

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, Dushu Lake Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Xiao-Feng Zhang

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Contributions

CWP and MZ contributed to the conception and design of the study. MZ, DLL and JYK performed the literature search and data collection. MZ drafted the manuscript and carried out the statistical analysis. CWP and XFZ critically revised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiao-Feng Zhang or Chen-Wei Pan.

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Zhou, M., Li, DL., Kai, JY. et al. Sleep duration and the risk of major eye disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eye (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02403-4

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