Association Between Accelerometer-Measured Irregular Sleep Duration and Type 2 Diabetes Risk: A Prospective Cohort Study in the UK Biobank

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between irregular sleep duration and incident diabetes in a U.K. population over 7 years of follow-up. 

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Among 84,421 UK Biobank participants (mean age 62 years) who were free of diabetes at the time of providing accelerometer data in 2013–2015 and prospectively followed until May 2022, sleep duration variability was quantified by the within-person SD of 7-night accelerometer-measured sleep duration. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for incident diabetes (identified from medical records, death register, and/or self-reported diagnosis) according to categories of sleep duration SD. 

RESULTS There were 2,058 incident diabetes cases over 622,080 person-years of follow-up. Compared with sleep duration SD ≤ 30 min, the HR (95% CI) was 1.15 (0.99, 1.33) for 31–45 min, 1.28 (1.10, 1.48) for 46–60 min, 1.54 (1.32, 1.80) for 61–90 min, and 1.59 (1.33, 1.90) for ≥91 min, after adjusting for age, sex, and race. We found a nonlinear relationship (P nonlinearity 0.0002), with individuals with a sleep duration SD of >60 vs. ≤60 min having 34% higher diabetes risk (95% CI 1.22, 1.47). Further adjustment for lifestyle, comorbidities, environmental factors, and adiposity attenuated the association (HR comparing sleep duration SD of >60 vs. ≤60 min: 1.11; 95% CI 1.01, 1.22). The association was stronger among individuals with lower diabetes polygenic risk score (PRS; P interaction ≤ 0.0264) and longer sleep duration (P interaction ≤ 0.0009). 

CONCLUSIONS Irregular sleep duration was associated with higher diabetes risk, particularly in individuals with a lower diabetes PRS and longer sleep duration.