Poor sleeping patterns may increase asthma risk: Study

Most of us know that irregular sleeping patterns can lead to a number of health issues and could increase stress levels exponentially. But did you know that it could also increase asthma risk? A decade-long study has suggested that regularly enjoying a good night's sleep could significantly reduce your risk of developing asthma, which affects about 300 million people worldwide.

The findings, whichwere first published in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research,revealed that poor sleeping patterns may bolster genetic susceptibility to asthma and could potentially double the risk of being diagnosed with the inflammatory disease.

Meanwhile, ahealthy sleep pattern has been linked to a lower risk of asthma, which suggests that detecting and treating sleep disorders early on may lessen the risk.

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Making use of the data provided by the UK Biobank study, ateam from Shandong University in Chinaexamined 455,405 people aged 38 to 73 anddeveloped a model of risk and sleep traits after following the participants for more than a decade.

People were asked about their sleeping patterns at the start of the study. They were also askedwhether they were a morning person or a night owl, how long they usually sleep, whether they snored, had insomnia and whether they experienced excessive sleepiness during the daytime.

The study defines a healthy sleep patternas being more of a morning person, never having insomnia or experiencing it rarely, sleeping for seven to nine hours a night, no snoring and no frequent sleepiness during the day. The genetic makeup of all these in the study was mapped, and an asthma risk score was drawn up.

About one in every three participants was found to have a high genetic risk of developing asthma, a third had an intermediate risk and another third had a low risk. In total, 17,836 people were diagnosed with asthma.

"These results showed that a healthy sleep pattern could significantly decrease asthma risk in any genetic subgroup,"the researchers wrote. "Unhealthy sleep patterns and sleep traits … were significantly associated with the risk of asthma in adults. The combination of poor sleep pattern and high susceptibility could lead to additive asthma risk."

"A healthier sleep pattern could be beneficial in asthma prevention regardless of genetic conditions," the researchers concluded.

As compared to people with low genetic risk, those with high genetic risk were 47 per centmore likely to be diagnosed with asthma.While participants with a poor sleeping pattern were 55 per cent more likely to develop the condition.

Also, participants at high genetic risk, who also reported poor sleep patterns, were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with asthma as those with a healthy sleep pattern and a low genetic risk.

The results showed that a healthy sleep pattern decreasesthe risk of asthma by 44 per cent in those at low genetic risk, 41 per cent in those at intermediate risk and 37 per cent in those with high genetic risk.

Urging caution, Dr Erika Kennington, the head of research and innovation at the charity Asthma and Lung UK said, "This research suggests there is a link between asthma and not getting enough sleep, although it is too early to say that treating poor sleep could reduce someone’s risk of developing asthma."