Sleep Duration May Influence Cataract, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Myopia Risk

Inappropriate sleep duration may increase the risk of major eye disorders, according to a meta-analysis published in Eye.

Researchers included 21 studies and 777,348 participants in a pooled investigation to examine associations between sleep duration and eye disorders, including diabetic retinopathy (DR), cataract, myopia, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The team performed a search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases and included original studies that contained adequate data to determine odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) in the analysis.

Long sleep duration was significantly associated with an increased risk of DR (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.24-2.73), while short sleep duration was significantly associated with an increased cataract risk (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.05-1.36), according to the report. Individuals who slept for a longer duration during a 24-hour period, which included combined nighttime sleeping and daytime napping, experienced less DR risk compared with individuals who exclusively demonstrated oversleeping throughout the night (OR, 1.74 vs 2.17). Sleep duration longer than 10 hours per night was associated with an increased myopia risk (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.01-1.04).

“The findings of significant correlations between short sleep as well as long sleep and major eye disorders are of both public health and clinical implications. From a public health perspective, fortunately, sleep duration is an inherently modifiable risk factor, which provides a new perspective for prevention programs specifically targeting eye disorders,” according to researchers. “Clinically, in addition to classic risk factors for eye disorders, understanding the influence of sleep duration may help doctors better treat these disorders in a more holistic approach.”

Study limitations include a limited number of eligible studies, variations in sample size among the studies, and potential recall bias due to participants self-reporting sleeping patterns in some studies.