Irregular sleep connected to the risk of 172 diseases. What a new study on the instability of the sleep-wake rhythm of 88 thousand people discovered

An analysis conducted on 88,461 participants in the UK Biobank database, monitored for an average of Almost seven years through fitness tracker, he revealed that the irregularities of the sleep-wake rhythm is associated with a significantly higher risk of developing As many as 172 different diseases. The study, published a few weeks ago on Health Data Sciencehighlighted how the regularity of sleep, understood as the consistency of the sleeping and awakening times and stability of the circadian cycleis a much more important indicator of the duration of sleep in predicting long -term health. For example, the participants who went to sleep late, over midnight and a half, or who showed weak circadian rhythms, had illness risks Up to two or three times greater for some serious conditionslike liver cirrhosis.

Scholars have analyzed various circadian parameters, including stability between the various days, the breadth of the rhythm and the variability within the individual days, finding that low stability and amplitude levels and a high fragmentation of the daily rhythm were strongly connected to the increase in metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The duration of sleep, often considered the only relevant indicator, has proven less predictive: the so -called “long dormitories”, with more than nine hours in bed, did not show a real benefit since often they slept less than six actual hoursa common mistake when using only self-relevant questionnaires. The use of wearable devices has made it possible to obtain objective measurements, overcoming these limits and highlighting how the regularity and quality of the sleep is more than possible, as well as the corhetic time, than the duration tout court.

According to researchers, the mechanisms behind these associations include the compromise of metabolism, hormonal regulation and immune response, with a potential Increase in the chronic inflammatory state. Furthermore, the circadian instability was related to anacceleration of epigenetic biological agingmeasured with molecular markers such as Grimage and Phenaage. These data strengthen the idea that the regularity of sleep is not just a well -being factor but A real general health biomarker.

It is not enough: the researchers estimated that up to 37% of the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease could be attributed to disturbed sleep rhythms, together with 36% of the risk of type 2 diabetes and 22% of the risk of acute renal failure. For 92 diseases, over 20% of the total risk can be traced back to sleep problems.

These percentages naturally represent what scientists call fraction attributable to the populationthat is, the share of disease load that could theoretically be prevented if everyone had an optimal sleep. The data place the impact of sleep on health at the same level of risk factors well known such as smoke, obesity and low level of education.

Among other things, to validate the most significant results, researchers replied the main discoveries using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, which includes US citizens from different socio-demographic areas. The checks confirmed the associations between the bad quality of the rhythm of sleep and pathologies such as chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy, renal failure, diabetes and depression, diseases that had previously never been connected, in scientific literature, timing and regularity of sleep

The study also suggests that interventions aimed at strengthening the circadian rhythm, such as theNatural light exposure in the morningthe use of light therapies or simply the discipline to keep fixed times to go to bed and wake upcould reduce the incidence of numerous chronic pathologies. Even in free days and on weekends, avoiding great time deviations helps to stabilize the biological mechanisms that regulate sleep and wakefulness, protecting the body from imbalances that, if protracted, can lead to even serious diseases.

The researchers therefore conclude that It is not enough to sleep enough: quality and above all the temporal coherence of sleep are decisive for long -term health. A solid and regular circadian routine, combined with good sleep hygiene, can reduce the risk of complex pathologies and slow down the biological aging process.

Scientific sources mentioned in this article:

Phenome-Wide Analysis of Diseases in Relation to Objective Measured Sleep Traits and Comba Combartison with Subjective Sleep Traits in 88 461 Adults