Association between accelerometer-measured irregular sleep duration and longitudinal changes in body mass index in older adults

Apr 6, 2025International journal of obesity (2005)

Irregular sleep patterns measured by activity trackers linked to body weight changes over time in older adults

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Abstract

Participants with a sleep duration variability greater than 60 minutes experienced a 0.24 kg higher BMI change over three years.

Irregular sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of obesity.
Those with a sleep duration variability greater than 60 minutes had an 80% higher risk for developing obesity compared to those with less variability.
The relationship between sleep duration irregularity and weight change remained significant after controlling for sociodemographic factors and lifestyle.
Factors such as age, sex, baseline BMI, and genetic predisposition did not influence the association between sleep irregularity and BMI change.

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BACKGROUND: Irregular sleep duration may disrupt circadian rhythms and contribute to metabolic, behavioral, and mood changes, potentially increasing the risk for obesity. However, quantitative data on the relationship between sleep duration irregularity and weight change are lacking.

METHODS: In this prospective study, we analyzed data from 10,572 participants (mean age: 63 years) in the UK Biobank who wore accelerometers for a week between 2013 and 2015 and had two body mass index (BMI; kg/m²) measurements on average 2.5 years apart. Irregular sleep duration was assessed by the within-person standard deviation (SD) of 7-night accelerometer-measured sleep duration.

RESULTS: Participants with sleep duration SD > 60 min versus ≤30 min had 0.24 kg/m(95% CI: 0.08, 0.40) higher BMI change (kg/m), standardized to three-year intervals, and 80% (95% CI: 1.28, 2.52) higher risk for incident obesity, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, shift work, and baseline BMI or follow-up period (p-nonlinearity <0.02 for both). These associations remained consistent after adjusting for lifestyle, comorbidities, and other sleep factors, including sleep duration. Age, sex, baseline BMI, and genetic predisposition to higher BMI (measured with a polygenic risk score) did not appear to modify the association. 2 2

CONCLUSIONS: Since irregular sleep duration is common, trials of interventions targeting sleep irregularity might lead to new public health strategies that tackle obesity.

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Association between accelerometer-measured irregular sleep duration and longitudinal changes in body mass index in older adults

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