Sex- and age-dependent associations of EPA and DHA with very short sleep duration in adults: a cross-sectional analysis

ABSTRACT

Objectives

This study aimed to compare the efficacy of dietary intake of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5 ω-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6 ω-3) on very short sleep duration (<5 h/night) in adults.

Methods

The bootstrap method was used in the multinomial logistic regression to estimate the ORs and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of very short sleep duration. We used rolling window method to analyze the effects of EPA and DHA dietary intakes on very short sleep durations in men and women over age. To illustrate the stability of the results for the selected window width, we built a shiny application.

Results

Compared to the first quartile, the mean ORs of EPA intake on very short sleep duration and the corresponding 95% CIs for the second, third and fourth quartiles of EPA intake among men under 32 years old were 1.50 (0.56, 3.44) mg, 1.55 (0.59, 3.48) mg, and 3.99 (1.15, 10.01) mg, respectively. Among women over 44 years old, the ORs for DHA intake were 1.12 (0.81, 1.52) mg, 0.94 (0.68, 1.29) mg, and 0.62 (0.38, 0.98) mg for the second, third and fourth quartiles, respectively.

Conclusions

The associations of EPA and DHA with very short sleep duration are sex- and age-dependent. In males under the age of 32, a significant positive correlation exists between dietary EPA intake and very short sleep duration. For women above 44 years of age, an increase in DHA intake can notably ameliorate issues of very short sleep duration.

KEYWORDS:

• Very short sleep duration
• EPA
• DHA
• differential effects
• bootstrap methods
• gender differences
• middle-aged and elderly
• omega-3 fatty acids

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the participants and researchers involved in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for their valuable contributions to the dataset, which has enabled this analysis. We acknowledge that the data collection for NHANES was conducted with the participants’ written informed consent, and under protocols approved by an ethics committee in line with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. We also thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for making the NHANES data publicly available, facilitating this and many other studies that contribute to the advancement of health and nutrition research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration

The datasets for this study can be found in the NHANES program, at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/intro.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province [grant number: 20232BAB201025].

Notes on contributors

Qianning Liu

Qianning Liu, is an assistant professor at Department of Statistics at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.

Qingsong Shan

Qingsong Shan, is an assistant professor at Department of Statistics at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.

Zahid Ur Rehman

Zahid Ur Rehman, is a PhD candidate at Department of Statistics at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.