Associations between inadequate sleep and obesity in the US adult population: analysis of the national health interview survey (1977-2009)

Epidemiologic studies show a curvilinear relationship between inadequate sleep (< 7 or > 8 hours) and obesity (Body Mass Index > 30 kg/m2), which have enormous public health impact. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey, an ongoing nationally representative cross-sectional study of non-institutionalized US adults (≥18 years) (1977 through 2009), we examined the hypothesis that inadequate sleep is independently related to overweight/obesity, with adjustment for socio-demographic, health risk, and medical factors. Self- reported data on health risks, physician-diagnosed medical conditions, sleep duration, and body weight and height were used. Prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 31.2% to 36.9% and 10.2% to 27.7%, respectively. Whereas prevalence of very short sleep (