Self-Reported Insufficient Sleep Is Associated With Clinical and Inflammatory Features of Asthma: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: A few studies have explored the association between short sleep duration and worse asthma outcomes in patients with self-reported asthma; however, all of them were cross-sectional.

Objectives: To investigate the association between self-reported sleep duration and asthma-related clinical and inflammatory characteristics and whether sleep duration is associated with asthma exacerbations (AEs) in the following year.

Methods: A prospective cohort study consecutively recruited participants with asthma, who were classified into short (n = 58), normal (n = 380), and long (n = 84) sleep duration groups. We investigated the clinical and inflammatory characteristics and exacerbations within a 1-year follow-up.

Results: Patients with short sleep duration were older and had significantly lower total IgE and FeNO levels and higher airway inflammation, characterized by increased levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in sputum than those of patients with normal sleep duration. Furthermore, they had a significantly increased risk for poorly controlled asthma (adjusted odds ratio = 2.741; 95% CI, 1.379-5.447; P = .004) and moderate to severe AEs (adjusted incidence rate ratio = 1.798; 95% CI, 1.098-2.942; P = .020).

Conclusions: Short sleep duration was associated with non-type 2 inflammation and is an independent risk factor for future AEs. Therefore, as a potentially treatable trait, sleep duration may have clinical implications for asthma management.

Keywords: Asthma; Asthma control; Exacerbation; Sleep duration.