BackgroundTo explore the associations between sleep duration and abnormalities in serum lipid levels in a Chinese population.MethodsA prospective study was conducted with 34,260 participants from the general Chinese population. Sleep duration was categorized as ≤5, 6, 7, 8 or ≥ 9 h. Each lipid profile abnormality was defined according to the Chinese Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Dyslipidemia in Adults (2016). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the association between sleep duration and dyslipidemia.ResultsCompared with a 7 h sleep duration, long sleep duration (≥9 h) was significantly associated with low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (hazard ratio (HR): 1.24; 95% CI: 1.12–1.38). In subgroup analyses, the positive association between long sleep duration and low HDL-C level in men and in the different age groups was more pronounced than the association in women. No significant interactions were observed in the association between sleep duration and each abnormal serum lipid level by sex/age in the study population (P-interaction> 0.05).ConclusionsThese findings suggest that long sleep duration is associated with low HDL-C level among the Kailuan community population.