Shared genetic architecture between sleep behaviors and lifespan

Abstract

Abstract Poor sleep health is associated with a wide array of increased risk for cardiovascular, metabolic and mental health problems as well as all-cause mortality in observational studies, suggesting potential links between sleep health and lifespan. However, it has yet to be determined whether sleep health is genetically or/and causally associated with lifespan. In this study, we firstly studied the genetic association between sleep behaviors and lifespan using GWAS summary statistics, and both sleep duration time and insomnia were negatively correlated and shared genetic loci with lifespan. Then, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and multivariable MR analysis strategy was applied to explore the causal effects between sleep behaviors and lifespan. We found that genetically predicted short sleep duration was causally and negatively associated with lifespan in univariable and multivariable MR analyses, and this effect was partially mediated by coronary artery disease (CAD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). In contrast, we found that insomnia had no causal effects on lifespan. Our results further confirmed the negative effects of short sleep duration on lifespan and suggested that extension of sleep may benefit the physical health of individuals with sleep loss. Further attention should be given to such public health issues.