The lack of regular sleep is an issue that I’ve written about numerous times on this blog over the years, and there is no shortage of evidence highlighting the difficulties caused by a lack of sleep.  We should not fall into the trap of thinking this is purely a numbers game however, as recent research from Duke Health and the Duke Clinical Research Institute reminds us that a regular sleep pattern is just as important as the amount of sleep we get.

The researchers analyzed nearly 2,000 adults to explore the impact their sleep patterns had on their health.  The results are shocking, with the authors claiming that irregular sleep patterns are associated with higher weight, blood sugar, blood pressure and risk of heart attack.

Irregular sleep

It should be said that the researchers aren’t claiming that irregular sleep patterns cause all of these things, merely that there is a clear association between people with irregular sleep and poor health in a number of areas.

“From our study, we can’t conclude that sleep irregularity results in health risks, or whether health conditions affect sleep,” the researchers say. “Perhaps all of these things are impacting each other.”

Whilst the researchers are cautious about implying causation, they do nonetheless believe that identifying irregular sleep could nonetheless be used to identify those at risk of a range of other health issues.

“Heart disease and diabetes are extremely common in the United States, are extremely costly and also are leading causes of death in this country,” they explain. “To the extent we can predict individuals at risk for these diseases, we may be able to prevent or delay their onset.”

Volunteers were tracked using sleep monitors that had enough granularity to allow even small changes in sleep patterns to be monitored.  Each of the volunteers was aged between 54 and 93, with no previously diagnosed sleep disorders among them.

Sleep patterns

The analysis allowed the researchers to monitor not only the duration of each volunteers’ sleep, but their pattern, and specifically their preferred timing.  The data revealed that people with hypertension appeared to sleep for longer, but those with obesity would usually stay up for longer.

Having a regular sleep pattern appeared to be the closest correlation with someone’s heart and metabolic disease risk.  What’s more irregular sleepers would also be more drowsy during the day and have lower activity levels.

“Perhaps there’s something about obesity that disrupts sleep regularity,” Lunsford-Avery said. “Or, as some research suggests, perhaps poor sleep interferes with the body’s metabolism which can lead to weight gain, and it’s a vicious cycle. With more research, we hope to understand what’s going on biologically, and perhaps then we could say what’s coming first or which is the chicken and which is the egg.”

These are all questions that the team hope to explore further in future research.  Given the growing appreciation of the importance of sleep to our wellbeing, it’s certainly an interesting line of enquiry.