Study Links Increased REM Sleep to Lower Risks of Chronic Diseases

This research, rated at evidence level 2 (Good), emphasizes the importance of objectively measured sleep patterns over self-reported data in understanding sleep’s impact on health. The study analyzed data from 95,559 participants in the UK Biobank, who wore wrist-based accelerometers for seven days. Sleep stages were estimated using the SleepNet algorithm. Participants had a mean age of 56.2 years, 43.7% were male, and they were followed for a median of 8.9 years.

The researchers conducted a phenome-wide association analysis to explore the connections between sleep characteristics and 1,049 health outcomes, using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. After applying Bonferroni correction, 156 disease associations remained statistically significant, with 83 linked to REM sleep and 7 to deep sleep.

Specifically, increased REM sleep correlated with lower risks of heart failure (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.68-0.80; P<.001), atrial fibrillation (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.79-0.86; P<.001), dementia (HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.47-0.62; P<.001), and Alzheimer’s disease (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.57-0.81; P<.001). Additionally, greater deep sleep was linked to reduced risks of type 2 diabetes (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.85-0.93; P<.001) and Parkinson’s disease (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.62-0.80; P<.001). Conversely, higher sleep irregularity and increased wakefulness after sleep onset were associated with greater disease risks.

The study also highlighted significant nonlinear relationships between sleep duration and 86 disease phenotypes, indicating that the lowest disease risks were observed with 6–8 hours of sleep. Overall, longer, uninterrupted sleep appears to decrease the risk of various chronic diseases, while sleep disruption is associated with increased health risks.