Cross-sectional and Prospective Associations of Actigraphy-Assessed Sleep Regularity With Metabolic Abnormalities: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

OBJECTIVE: To cross-sectionally and prospectively investigate the association between irregular sleep patterns, a potential marker for circadian disruption, and metabolic abnormalities. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: ) a data-driven clustering of metabolic factors. RESULTS: = 970), the corresponding fully adjusted odds ratio (OR) was 1.27 (95% CI 0.97, 1.65) for sleep duration and 1.36 (1.03, 1.80) for sleep timing. Compared with the cluster of few metabolic changes, every 1-h increase in sleep variability was associated with almost doubled odds for the cluster characterized by incidence of multiple metabolic abnormalities (OR 1.97 95% CI 1.18, 3.30 for sleep duration and OR 2.10 95% CI 1.25, 3.53 for sleep timing). CONCLUSIONS: Increased variability in sleep duration and timing was associated with higher prevalence and incidence of metabolic abnormalities even after consideration of sleep duration and other lifestyle factors.