Sleep Duration and Kidney Function - Does Weekend Sleep Matter?

OBJECTIVE: Weekend sleep duration is linked to health issues, including mortality. However, how weekend sleep duration can impact chronic kidney disease (CKD) still needs to be understood. Therefore, we aimed to analyze how weekend sleep duration is associated with kidney function.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We included 5362 study participants and categorized them into nine subgroups by sleep duration (short: ≤6 hours, normal: 6-9 hours, and long: ≥9 hours) on weekdays and weekends and analyzed for the respective association with renal function using stratified multivariable linear regression.

RESULTS: Weekend sleep duration for 9 hours or more was associated with decreasing estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels by 2.8 to 6.4 mL/min/1.73 m2 among people with long to short weekday sleep duration compared with short weekday and weekend sleep durations (control group) after adjusting for demographic characteristics, body measurement, sleep quality, smoking, and comorbidities. The study population with short weekday sleep duration (sWK) and long weekend sleep duration (lWD) had the most significant decline in eGFR. For the study population with sWK, eGFR level significantly decreased by 1.1 mL/min/1.73 m2 as sleep duration on weekends increased by one hour.

CONCLUSION: The underlying mediators of lWD and CKD could be the dysregulation of human behaviors, metabolism, or biological functions. Longer weekend sleep duration was linked to a decrease in eGFR levels. It warrants further study to clarify the mediators.