Habitual sleep quality, plasma metabolites and risk of coronary heart disease in post-menopausal women

Abstract Background Epidemiologic studies suggest a strong link between poor habitual sleep quality and increased cardiovascular disease risk. However, the underlying mechanisms are not entirely clear. Metabolomic profiling may elucidate systemic differences associated with sleep quality that influence cardiometabolic health. Methods We explored cross-sectional associations between sleep quality and plasma metabolites in a nested case–control study of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI; n = 1956) and attempted to replicate the results in an independent sample from the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII; n = 209). A sleep-quality score (SQS) was derived from self-reported sleep problems asked in both populations. Plasma metabolomics were assayed using LC–MS with 347 known metabolites. General linear regression was used to identify individual metabolites associated with continuous SQS (false-discovery rate