Associations between actigraphy-measured sleep duration, continuity, and timing with mortality in the UK Biobank

Abstract Study Objectives To examine the associations between sleep duration, continuity, timing, and mortality using actigraphy among adults. Methods Data were from a cohort of 88 282 adults (40–69 years) in UK Biobank that wore a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer for 7 days. Actigraphy data were processed to generate estimates of sleep duration and other sleep characteristics including wake after sleep onset (WASO), number of 5-minute awakenings, and midpoint for sleep onset/wake-up and the least active 5 hours (L5). Data were linked to mortality outcomes with follow-up to October 31, 2021. We implemented Cox models (hazard ratio, confidence intervals [HR, 95% CI]) to quantify sleep associations with mortality. Models were adjusted for demographics, lifestyle factors, and medical conditions. Results Over an average of 6.8 years 2973 deaths occurred (1700 cancer, 586 CVD deaths). Overall sleep duration was significantly associated with risk for all-cause (p