Sleeping habits and aortic stiffness in middle-aged men and women from the general population: insights from the SCAPIS study
Creators: name: Johansson, Madeleine
name: Östgren, Carl Johan
name: Nilsson, Peter M.
name: Engvall, Jan
name: Engström, Gunnar
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Physiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer

description: The relationship between sleeping habits and aortic stiffness remains inconclusive and is not fully explored in the European general population. We examined cross-sectionally 8659 participants from the Swedish population-based cohort Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS), mean age 57.5 years, 52.1% women. A self-administered questionnaire on sleeping habits (duration, quality, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness) was administered. Aortic stiffness was examined by the gold-standard method, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (c-f PWV) using Sphygmocor<sup>®</sup> XCEL, continuously and stratified by cut-off of &gt;10 m/s. Multivariable linear and logistic regression were performed stratified by sex. Out of 8659 subjects (mean c-f PWV of 9.4 ± 1.9 m/s), 32.3% had c-f PWV &gt;10 m/s, defined as aortic stiffness. Compared with subjects with c-f PWV ≤10 m/s, individuals with aortic stiffness reported more insomnia (<i>p</i> = 0.01) but less daytime sleepiness (<i>p</i> = 0.008). Men and women with poor sleep quality had 0.2 m/s lower mean c-f PWV compared with subjects with good sleep quality (<i>p</i> = 0.004). No difference in mean PWV was found in men and women with shorter/longer sleep duration (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05). In the multivariable regression models, no significant association was found between poor sleep quality, shorter (≤6 h) or longer (≥9 h) sleep duration and aortic stiffness in the total population, neither among men nor women (all <i>p</i> &gt; 0.05), independently of cardiovascular risk factors. Short and long sleep duration and poor sleep quality are not associated with aortic stiffness, measured with the gold-standard method c-f-PWV, in middle-aged men and women from the Swedish general population, independently of cardiovascular risk factors. Sleep is a modifiable factor that exerts significant effects on the autonomic nervous system, blood vessels and heart function. Adults are recommended to sleep 7–9 h per night for optimal health and function. However, there is no consensus on the definition of short and long sleep duration. So far, the relationship between sleeping habits and stiff blood vessels has been investigated primarily in the Asian population, and the association remains fairly unexplored in the European general population. Only one study has investigated the relationship between insomnia and vessel stiffness, whereas no studies have assessed the relationship between daytime sleepiness and vessel stiffness. In this large population-based study consisting of 8659 middle-aged individuals recruited from two large cities in Sweden, we identified that stiff blood vessels were linked to a higher rate of sleeplessness (insomnia), but less daytime sleepiness. Contrary to some previous findings performed in the Asian population, we did not find any relationship between poor sleep quality, and shorter (≤6 h) or longer (≥9 h) sleep duration and vessel stiffness in men or women, regardless of their cardiovascular risk factors. Future longitudinal studies are needed to improve our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying the association between sleeping habits and vessel stiffness.