Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Shorter Telomere Length in Healthy Men: Findings from the Whitehall II Cohort Study

Marta Jackowska,Jorge D Erusalimsky,Livia A Carvalho,Andrew Steptoe,Lee Butcher,Mark Hamer,Stefan Kiechl

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047292

Marta Jackowska, Jorge D Erusalimsky + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047292

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Abstract

BackgroundShorter telomere length and poor sleep are more prevalent at older ages, but their relationship is uncertain. This study explored associations between sleep duration and telomere length in a sample of healthy middle and early old age people.MethodsParticipants were 434 men and women aged 63.3 years on average drawn from the Whitehall II cohort study. Sleep duration was measured by self-report.ResultsThere was a linear association between sleep duration and leukocyte telomere length in men but not in women (P = 0.035). Men reporting shorter sleep duration had shorter telomeres, independently of age, body mass index, smoking, educational attainment, current employment, cynical hostility scores and depressive symptoms. Telomeres were on average 6% shorter in men sleeping 5 hours or fewer compared with those sleeping more than 7 hours per night.ConclusionThis study adds to the growing literature relating sleep duration with biomarkers of aging, and suggests that shortening of telomeres might reflect mechanisms through which short sleep contributes to pathological conditions in older men.

Highlights

Mean telomere length is an indicator of biological age, and is modified by genetic as well as environmental factors [1,2]
Measures Leukocyte relative mean telomere length was measured in triplicate by a monochrome multiplex Quantitative Real-Time PCR (Q-PCR) assay using a Bio-Rad CFX96TM Real-Time PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad, Hemel Hempstead, UK)
Since we have previously shown that shorter telomere length is associated with lower education [25] and greater hostility [8], these were included as covariates in addition to age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, current employment status and depressive symptoms

Summary

Introduction

Mean telomere length is an indicator of biological age, and is modified by genetic as well as environmental factors [1,2]. To date the association between sleep duration and telomere length has only been studied in women [17,18,19], or in the context of sleep apnea [20,21]. We explored associations between telomere length and self-reported sleep duration in a sample of healthy middle and early old age healthy men and women. This study took an explorative approach to test whether associations between sleep duration and telomere length would differ between men and women. Shorter telomere length and poor sleep are more prevalent at older ages, but their relationship is uncertain. This study explored associations between sleep duration and telomere length in a sample of healthy middle and early old age people

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Conclusion