Heritability and genetic correlations for sleep apnea, insomnia, and hypersomnia in a large clinical biobank

Abstract

Rationale: Comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea is reported to have worse outcomes than either condition alone. The local genetic correlations of these disorders are unknown.

Objectives: To identify local genomic regions with heritability for clinically diagnosed sleep apnea and insomnia, and to identify local genetic correlations between these disorders and/or hypersomnia.

Methods: Fifty thousand two hundred seventeen patients of European ancestry were examined. Global and local heritability and genetic correlations for independent regions were calculated, adjusting for obesity and other covariates.

Results: Sleep apnea and insomnia were significantly globally heritable and had 118 and 168 genetic regions with local heritability p-values <.05, respectively. One region had a significant genetic correlation for sleep apnea and hypersomnia (p-value = 9.85 × 10^-4).

Conclusions: Clinically diagnosed sleep apnea and insomnia have minimal shared genetic architecture, supporting genetically distinct comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea components. However, additional correlated regions may be identified with additional sample size and methodological improvements.

Keywords: COMISA; Genetics; Heritability; Insomnia; Sleep apnea.