Social-biological influences on sleep duration among adult residents of Northeastern China

Sleep maintains human health by regulating physiological and psychological functions [1]. Sleep disorders have been becoming increasingly common worldwide [2], afflicting 56% of Americans, 31% of western Europeans, 23% of Japanese, and 42% of Chinese [3]. Sleep disorders are a group of conditions that affect the ability to sleep well on a regular basis [4]. General symptoms of sleep disorders include difficulty falling or staying asleep, oversleeping, daytime fatigue, strong urge to take naps during the day, irritability or anxiety, lack of concentration, or depression [5].

Insufficient sleep syndrome and hypersomnia are still the main sleep disorders [6], despite advances in therapy that has been achieved. Abnormal sleep duration constitutes the same factor between insufficient sleep syndrome and hypersomnia [7]. Insufficient sleep syndrome is the most common cause of daytime sleepiness among the general population [8]. Persons with insufficient sleep syndrome routinely spend less than 8 h in bed at night, and have their symptoms ameliorated if they sleep for a longer period of time [9]. This syndrome results from insufficient duration of sleep nightly, affecting all systems of the body and giving rise to cognitive impairment [10]. In contrast, people with hypersomnia might require as many as 10 to 12 h of sleep per night to feel their best [11]. For people with hypersomnia, oversleeping may cause anxiety, back pain, headache, and memory problems [12]. Moreover, abnormal sleep duration correlates with negative health outcomes: short sleep duration is associated with diseases, such as hypertension [13], diabetes [14], or dyslipidemia [15]; and long sleep duration is associated with diseases, including hypertension [16], diabetes [17], obesity [18], metabolic syndrome [19], or dyslipidemia [20]. Thus, apart from medications, finding sleep-duration-influencing factors is necessary for controlling sleep disorders.

Investigations on sleep duration in China have been focusing on specific populations (children, students, elderly, and night workers) [21‐24], rather than focusing on general population. Cold climates traditionally have conferred long sleep duration in the residents in northeast China [25]. However, the accelerating pace of modernization and increasing social pressure have interfered the sleep duration of general population in China. As such, the purpose of the current study was to investigate social-biological factors related to sleep duration among adult in northeast China.

A total of 21,435 participants were enrolled in this investigation. Among the participants, participants with Han nationality represented 92.7%, and married/cohabitated participants accounted for 85.4%. The mean of sleep duration per day was 7.24 h in the total participants. Differences of sleep duration significantly existed in indices, including age, ethnicity, place of residence, marital status, educational level, occupation, and average monthly earnings. There was no significant difference between male and female in sleep duration (Table 1). Among all the participants, 11,436 participants (53.4%) had short sleep duration, and 2260 participants (10.5%) had long sleep duration.

We based on the 17 independent variables that were listed in questionnaire to investigate short-sleep-duration-influencing factors using univariate analysis. We found that short sleep duration was associated with the variables (age, place of residence, marital status, occupation, educational level, average monthly earnings, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, dietary, physical exercise, BMI, history of hypertension, diabetes, and CHD or MI) (all P < 0.05) (Table 2). Univariate analysis further revealed that there were increased risks of short sleep duration in the participants with factors, such as urban (OR = 1.12, 95%CI = 1.04–1.20), divorced/ separated (OR = 1.75, 95%CI = 1.39–2.19), widowed (OR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.87–2.50), manual (OR = 1.26, 95%CI = 1.15–1.38), cigarette smoking (OR = 1.30, 95%CI = 1.20–1.40), alcohol drinking (OR = 1.11, 95%CI = 1.03–1.20), history of hypertension (OR = 1.60, 95%CI = 1.48–1.72), diabetes (OR = 1.41, 95%CI = 1.29–1.53), and CHD or MI (OR = 1.68, 95%CI = 1.49–1.90). Moreover, short sleep duration was more serious in participants with these factors (middle-age: OR = 2.27, 95%CI = 2.10–2.44; elderly: OR = 2.58, 95%CI = 2.33–2.85; overweight: OR = 1.21, 95%CI = 1.11–1.30; and obesity: OR = 1.34, 95%CI = 1.21–1.49). In comparison, protective factors for short sleep duration were unmarried (OR = 0.59, 95%CI = 0.51–0.68), regular diet (OR = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.71–0.85), proper physical exercise (OR = 0.70, 95%CI = 0.64–0.77), junior middle school level (OR = 0.68, 95%CI = 0.62–0.75), senior middle school level (OR = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.67–0.81), undergraduate or above level (OR = 0.48, 95%CI = 0.43–0.54), and average monthly earnings of ¥500~ (OR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.70–0.84) and ¥3000~ (OR = 0.65, 95%CI = 0.57–0.74) (Table 2).

For long sleep duration, univariate analysis showed factors, such as sex, age, ethnicity, place of residence, occupation, educational level, average monthly earnings, alcohol drinking, dietary, physical exercise, BMI, and history of CHD or MI, were associated with long sleep duration (all P < 0.05) (Table 2). The increased risk factors of long sleep duration were consisted of such variables (elderly: OR = 1.17, 95%CI = 1.01–1.34; Han nationality: OR = 1.33, 95%CI = 1.08–1.64; manual: OR = 1.70, 95%CI = 1.46–1.98; underweight: OR = 1.20, 95%CI = 1.08–1.33; obesity: OR = 1.02, 95%CI = 1.01–1.03; and history of CHD or MI: OR = 1.30, 95%CI = 1.08–1.57). Moreover, the decreased risk factors of long sleep duration were composed of the variables (male: OR = 0.87, 95%CI = 0.78–0.97; middle age: OR = 0.86, 95%CI = 0.77–0.97; urban: OR = 0.63, 95%CI = 0.56–0.70; junior middle school level: OR = 0.74, 95%CI = 0.64–0.85; senior middle school level: OR = 0.52, 95%CI = 0.45–0.61; undergraduate or above level: OR = 0.43, 95%CI = 0.36–0.51; alcohol drinking: OR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.71–0.90; regular diet: OR = 0.87, 95%CI = 0.75–0.99; sometimes physical exercise: OR = 0.70, 95%CI = 0.61–0.81; often physical exercise: OR = 0.70, 95%CI = 0.61–0.79; overweight: OR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.75–0.96; and average monthly earnings of ¥500~: OR = 0.61, 95%CI = 0.53–0.70, and ¥3000~: OR = 0.60, 95%CI = 0.49–0.75) (Table 2).

We further used multivariate logistic regression analysis to validate sleep-duration-influencing factors. We identified that the increased risks of short sleep duration were associated with the factors (divorced/separated: OR = 1.381, 95%CI 1.193–2.272; widowed: OR = 1.433, 95%CI = 1.181–1.738; alcohol drinking: OR = 1.198, 95%CI = 1.066–1.347; history of CHD or MI: OR = 1.269, 95%CI = 1.114–1.446; middle-aged: OR = 2.008, 95%CI = 1.778–2.268; elderly: OR = 2.066, 95%CI = 1.751–2.438; and obesity: OR = 1.192, 95%CI = 1.035–1.373). However, the protective factors for short sleep duration consisted of the variables (urban: OR = 0.782, 95%CI = 0.698–0.876; regular diet: OR = 0.741, 95%CI = 0.650–0.846; junior middle school level: OR = 0.854, 95%CI 0.747–0.976; and undergraduate or above level: OR = 0.777, 95%CI = 0.630–0.959) (Table 3). In addition, we found that the increased risk factors of long sleep duration were composed of urban (OR = 1.386, 95%CI 1.131–1.697) and others occupation (OR = 1.713, 95%CI 1.227–2.392). Conversely, the protective factors for long sleep duration were composed of such variables (middle age: OR = 0.806, 95%CI = 0.674–0.964; senior middle school level: OR = 0.642, 95%CI = 0.499–0.826; undergraduate or above level: OR = 0.607, 95%CI = 0.416–0.885; average monthly earnings of ¥500~2999: OR = 0.800, 95%CI = 0.658–0.971; often physical exercise: OR = 0.741, 95%CI = 0.616–0.893; and overweight: OR = 0.791, 95%CI = 0.664–0.942) (Table 4).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between sleep duration and the indices of demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, and disease history in adult residents in northeast China. We found that the mean of sleep duration per day (7.24 h) in Jilin province was less than that in China in 2002 (8 .3h) [28] and 2007 (8 .1h) [29]; moreover, the rate of short sleep duration (sleep duration per day < 7 h) was 53.4%, and the rate of long sleep duration (sleep duration per day > 9 h) was 10.5%. Compared with long sleep duration, short sleep duration is common in adult residents in northeast China.

Negative associations of short sleep duration with factors (education level, family income, and leisure-time physical activity) and positive associations with factors (number of live births, history of night shift work, and certain chronic diseases) have been found in Shanghai, China [30]. Our results supported their conclusion other than live births and history of night shift work. Sun W. et al. [31] reveal short sleep duration is associated with increasing obesity in men, and long sleep duration is associated with obesity in women in Beijing; however, we did not find the difference between man and woman with respect to increasing obesity in Jilin province. Previous studies show rural residents have longer sleep duration than urban residents in Tianjin [32], Shanghai [30], and Beijing [33], China, but our results showed urban residents slept longer than those who lived in rural, partially because Jilin is an agricultural province, and rural residents have to spend more time in labor [34]. Similar to the discoveries of Troxel WM et al. [35], our results also showed divorce/divorcee/separation or widow/widower were susceptible to have short sleep duration. In accordance with the discovers of Foti KE et al. [36], we also found alcohol drinking and irregular diet were risk factors for short sleep duration.

Long sleep duration is negatively associated with age and education level [30]. Our study further found middle-age, senior middle school level, and undergraduate or above level were the protective factors for long sleep duration. Previous studies have found that physical activity is associated with long sleep duration [37], and in our study, people who never performed physical activity slept longer than people who performed physical activity frequently. However, Ferranti R et al. [38] and Foti KE et al. [36] indicate that sleep duration is not associated with physical activity. Thus, the relationship between sleep duration and physical activity remains elusive. Similar to the discovery of Sun W et al. [31] and Nagai et al. [39], our results supported no association between long sleep duration and obesity. Additionally, rural residents were more likely to have long sleep duration than urban residents in Guizhou province, China [40]. However, urban residents slept longer than rural residents in Jilin province.

Our study provides some inspirations for the sleep policy makers. In the future intervention work, factors (such as physical exercise) that may affect sleep duration should be prevented and corrected for people with different characteristics to improve sleep quality. At the same time, the government should increase the education of the impact of sleep on health, and advocate a healthy and adequate sleep.

There are some limitations in our study. First, the data in our study were based on self-reported questionnaires; therefore, the accuracy of the reported results cannot be determined. Second, there may be errors in anthropometric measurements, although the large sample size and quality control could partly compensate for the errors. Third, the temporality of associations cannot be determined because of the cross-sectional nature of this study design.

Short sleep duration is common among residents in northeast China. Age, place of residence, and educational level are implicated in both short sleep duration and long sleep duration. Short sleep duration inclines to link with the indices (marital status, alcohol drinking, dietary, obesity, and history of CHD or MI). However, long sleep duration is relevant to the indices (occupation, average monthly earnings, and physical exercise).