Sleep patterns, genetic susceptibility, and incident cardiovascular disease: a prospective study of 385 292 UK biobank participants

Aims: To quantify the association of combined sleep behaviours and genetic susceptibility with the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods and results: This study included 385 292 participants initially free of CVD from UK Biobank. We newly created a healthy sleep score according to five sleep factors and defined the low-risk groups as follows: early chronotype, sleep 7-8 h per day, never/rarely insomnia, no snoring, and no frequent excessive daytime sleepiness. Weighted genetic risk scores of coronary heart disease (CHD) or stroke were calculated. During a median of 8.5 years of follow-up, we documented 7280 incident CVD cases including 4667 CHD and 2650 stroke cases. Compared to those with a sleep score of 0-1, participants with a score of 5 had a 35% (19-48%), 34% (22-44%), and 34% (25-42%) reduced risk of CVD, CHD, and stroke, respectively. Nearly 10% of cardiovascular events in this cohort could be attributed to poor sleep pattern. Participants with poor sleep pattern and high genetic risk showed the highest risk of CHD and stroke.

Conclusion: In this large prospective study, a healthy sleep pattern was associated with reduced risks of CVD, CHD, and stroke among participants with low, intermediate, or high genetic risk.