title: Cumulative exposure to short sleep and body mass outcomes: a prospective study.
abstract: Short sleep duration is associated with excess body mass among adolescents and young adults. The mechanisms theorized to drive that association suggest that persistent exposure to short sleep should be associated with greater accumulations of body mass. We use prospective cohort data from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994-2009; n = 14 800) to examine associations between cumulative exposure to short sleep throughout adolescence and early adulthood and obesity and elevated waist circumference outcomes. We compare several clinical and distribution-based standards of short sleep to assess which measures are associated most strongly with body mass. Cumulative exposure to short sleep exhibits dose-response associations with obesity and elevated waist circumference. Relative to respondents with no instances of short sleep, those who slept -0.50 standard deviations or less than the age and sex-specific average sleep hours in all four waves had 1.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 2.04] times the odds of being obese and 1.45 (95% CI: 1.02, 2.06) times the odds of having an elevated waist circumference. Our findings suggest that cumulative exposure to short sleep during adolescence and young adulthood may play an important role in the etiology of obesity and elevated waist circumference during this important developmental period.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver and Population Program, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Krueger
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and the Yun Kim Population Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Eric N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Reither
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Peppard
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and the Yun Kim Population Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Burger
authors.affiliation: Preventive Medicine, Program in Public Health, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hale
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055105:Waist Circumference; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: adolescence; body mass index; nationally representative; persistent short sleep; sleep standards