The role of accelerometer-derived sleep traits on glycated haemoglobin and glucose levels: a Mendelian randomization study

Junxi Liu*, Rebecca C. Richmond, Emma L. Anderson, Jack Bowden, Ciarrah Jane S. Barry, Hassan S. Dashti, Iyas S. Daghlas, Jacqueline M. Lane, Simon D. Kyle, Céline Vetter, Claire L. Morrison, Samuel E. Jones, Andrew R. Wood, Timothy M. Frayling, Alison K. Wright, Matthew J. Carr, Simon G. Anderson, Richard A. Emsley, David W. Ray, Michael N. WeedonRicha Saxena, Martin K. Rutter, Deborah A. Lawlor

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Self-reported shorter/longer sleep duration, insomnia, and evening preference are associated with hyperglycaemia in observational analyses, with similar observations in small studies using accelerometer-derived sleep traits. Mendelian randomization (MR) studies support an effect of self-reported insomnia, but not others, on glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). To explore potential effects, we used MR methods to assess effects of accelerometer-derived sleep traits (duration, mid-point least active 5-h, mid-point most active 10-h, sleep fragmentation, and efficiency) on HbA1c/glucose in European adults from the UK Biobank (UKB) (n = 73,797) and the MAGIC consortium (n = 146,806). Cross-trait linkage disequilibrium score regression was applied to determine genetic correlations across accelerometer-derived, self-reported sleep traits, and HbA1c/glucose. We found no causal effect of any accelerometer-derived sleep trait on HbA1c or glucose. Similar MR results for self-reported sleep traits in the UKB sub-sample with accelerometer-derived measures suggested our results were not explained by selection bias. Phenotypic and genetic correlation analyses suggested complex relationships between self-reported and accelerometer-derived traits indicating that they may reflect different types of exposure. These findings suggested accelerometer-derived sleep traits do not affect HbA1c. Accelerometer-derived measures of sleep duration and quality might not simply be ‘objective’ measures of self-reported sleep duration and insomnia, but rather captured different sleep characteristics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number14962
JournalScientific Reports
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Accelerometry
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Blood Glucose/analysis
  • Female
  • Glycated Hemoglobin/analysis
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mendelian Randomization Analysis
  • Middle Aged
  • Self Report
  • Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/genetics
  • Sleep/genetics

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