No phenotypic or genotypic evidence for a link between sleep duration and brain atrophy

Anders M. Fjell (), Øystein Sørensen, Yunpeng Wang, Inge K. Amlien, William F. C. Baaré, David Bartrés-Faz, Lars Bertram, Carl-Johan Boraxbekk, Andreas M. Brandmaier, Ilja Demuth, Christian A. Drevon, Klaus P. Ebmeier, Paolo Ghisletta, Rogier Kievit, Simone Kühn, Kathrine Skak Madsen, Athanasia M. Mowinckel, Lars Nyberg, Claire E. Sexton, Cristina Solé-Padullés, Didac Vidal-Piñeiro, Gerd Wagner, Leiv Otto Watne and Kristine B. Walhovd
Additional contact information
Anders M. Fjell: University of Oslo
Øystein Sørensen: University of Oslo
Yunpeng Wang: University of Oslo
Inge K. Amlien: University of Oslo
William F. C. Baaré: Copenhagen University Hospital—Amager and Hvidovre
David Bartrés-Faz: Universitat de Barcelona
Lars Bertram: University of Oslo
Carl-Johan Boraxbekk: Copenhagen University Hospital—Amager and Hvidovre
Andreas M. Brandmaier: Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Ilja Demuth: Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Christian A. Drevon: Vitas AS
Klaus P. Ebmeier: University of Oxford
Paolo Ghisletta: University of Geneva
Rogier Kievit: Radboud University Medical Center
Simone Kühn: Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Kathrine Skak Madsen: Copenhagen University Hospital—Amager and Hvidovre
Athanasia M. Mowinckel: University of Oslo
Lars Nyberg: University of Oslo
Claire E. Sexton: University of Oxford
Cristina Solé-Padullés: Universitat de Barcelona
Didac Vidal-Piñeiro: University of Oslo
Gerd Wagner: Jena University Hospital
Leiv Otto Watne: University of Oslo
Kristine B. Walhovd: University of Oslo

Nature Human Behaviour, 2023, vol. 7, issue 11, 2008-2022

Abstract: Abstract Short sleep is held to cause poorer brain health, but is short sleep associated with higher rates of brain structural decline? Analysing 8,153 longitudinal MRIs from 3,893 healthy adults, we found no evidence for an association between sleep duration and brain atrophy. In contrast, cross-sectional analyses (51,295 observations) showed inverse U-shaped relationships, where a duration of 6.5 (95% confidence interval, (5.7, 7.3)) hours was associated with the thickest cortex and largest volumes relative to intracranial volume. This fits converging evidence from research on mortality, health and cognition that points to roughly seven hours being associated with good health. Genome-wide association analyses suggested that genes associated with longer sleep for below-average sleepers were linked to shorter sleep for above-average sleepers. Mendelian randomization did not yield evidence for causal impacts of sleep on brain structure. The combined results challenge the notion that habitual short sleep causes brain atrophy, suggesting that normal brains promote adequate sleep duration—which is shorter than current recommendations.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01707-5

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