Sleep and survival among women with breast cancer: 30 years of follow-up within the Nurses’ Health Study

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in women. Sleep has been linked with mortality among cancer-free population; however, its association with survival among women with breast cancer is understudied. Breast cancer patients ( N =3682) reported their average sleep duration post diagnosis. Subsamples also provided their pre-diagnosis sleep duration ( n =1949) and post-diagnosis sleep difficulties ( n =1353). Multivariate Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HR) and confidence intervals (CI) of all-cause, breast cancer, and non-breast cancer mortality. At diagnosis, the mean age was 64.9 years and 91.7% were stage I or II. Women sleeping ⩾ 9 h per night post diagnosis had a strong higher risk of all-cause (multivariate HRs: MV-HR=1.37, CI=1.10–1.71), breast cancer (MV-HR=1.46, CI=1.02–2.07), and non-breast cancer mortality (MV-HR=1.34, CI=1.01–1.79), compared to women sleeping 8 h per night. Increased sleep duration post diagnosis ( vs unchanged) and regular sleep difficulties ( vs rare/none) were associated with a strong elevated risk of all-cause mortality (MV-HR increased duration =1.35, CI=1.04–1.74; MV-HR regular difficulties =1.49, CI=1.02–2.19) and a moderate greater risk of breast cancer and non-breast cancer mortality. Various facets of sleep were associated with higher all-cause mortality risk. If replicated, these findings support evaluation of breast cancer patients’ sleep duration and difficulties to identify those at risk for poorer outcomes.