To examine the associations between sleep quality and health span using a prospective cohort design based on the UK Biobank (UKB).
This longitudinal cohort study enrolled 328,850 participants aged between 37 and 73 years from UKB to examine the associations between sleep quality and risk of terminated health span. End of health span was defined by eight events strongly associated with longevity (cancer, death, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, dementia, and diabetes), and a sleep score was generated according to five sleep behavioral factors (sleep duration, chronotype, sleeplessness, daytime sleepiness, and snoring) to characterize sleep quality. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model. Moreover, we calculated population attributable risk percentage (PAR%) to reflect the public health significance of healthy sleep quality.
Compared with poor sleep quality, participants with healthy sleep quality had a 15% (HR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.81–0.88) reduced risk of terminated health span, and those of less-healthy sleep quality had a 12% (HR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.85–0.92) reduced risk. Linear trend results indicated that the risk of terminated health span decreased by 4% for every additional sleep score. Nearly 15% health span termination events in this cohort would have been prevented if a healthy sleep behavior pattern was adhered to (PAR%: 15.30, 95% CI: 12.58–17.93).
Healthy sleep quality was associated with a reduced risk of premature end of health span, suggesting healthy sleep behavior may extend health span. However, further studies are suggested for confirmation of causality and potential mechanism.