Polysomnographically determined sleep and body mass index in patients with insomnia

Abstract

We assessed associations between polysomnographically determined sleep, especially the amount of slow-wave sleep (SWS), and body mass index (BMI) in patients with insomnia. One hundred and forty-one insomniacs and 55 healthy volunteers completed overnight polysomnographic recordings, and we measured height and body weight. No significant correlations were obtained between total sleep time and BMI among insomniacs. Compared with normal volunteers, insomnia patients exhibited longer sleep latency and shorter total sleep duration. While the two groups had no significant differences in BMI, insomniacs presented with more N1 but less time spend in SWS and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS). Based on their SWS time, we divided insomnia patients into three groups: short (26.99±13.88), intermediate (59.24±8.12), and long (102.21±26.17) SWS groups. The short-SWS group had significantly greater BMI than the long-SWS group. Further analyses with multiple linear regression showed a significant negative correlation between the amount of SWS and BMI scores in insomniacs, whereas no such correlation was found in healthy volunteers after controlling for potential confounds (e.g., age, sex and AHI). Our study suggests that low amounts of SWS may be associated with higher BMI in patients with insomnia.

Keywords: Body mass index; Insomnia; Sleep duration; Sleep stages; Slow wave sleep.