Polygenic Predisposition to Short Sleep Linked to Depression

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Polygenic predisposition to short sleep is associated with depression onset, but polygenic predisposition to depression is not associated with overall sleep duration, short sleep, or long sleep, according to a study published online Oct. 20 in Translational Psychiatry.

Odessa S. Hamilton, from University College London, and colleagues recruited male and female participants aged 50 years and older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to examine the prospective direction involved in suboptimal sleep durations and depression. Summary statistics data from the U.K. Biobank cohort were used to calculate polygenic scores (PGS) for sleep duration, short sleep, and long sleep. At baseline and across an average follow-up of eight years, subclinical depression was ascertained.

The researchers observed an association for one standard deviation increase in PGS for short sleep with 14 percent higher odds of depression onset. No significant associations were seen for PGS for sleep duration or long sleep. During the same period, the investigators found no association for PGS for depression with overall sleep duration, short sleep, or long sleep.

"We have this chicken or egg scenario between suboptimal sleep duration and depression, they frequently cooccur, but which comes first is largely unresolved," Hamilton said in a statement. "Using genetic susceptibility to disease we determined that sleep likely precedes depressive symptoms, rather than the inverse."

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