Sleeping well may prevent asthma 2023

Poor sleep may increase genetic susceptibility to asthma risk, whereas a decent night’s sleep may reduce the risk of developing chronic respiratory disease, according to a study.

Individuals with asthma frequently experience comorbid sleep disturbances; however, the relationship between sleep quality and asthma risk remains ambiguous.

The study, which was published in the open-access journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research, revealed that individuals with poor sleep patterns and a higher genetic susceptibility have an additively increased risk of developing asthma.

Inadequate sleep quality may double the likelihood of being diagnosed with the condition.

The study revealed that identifying and treating sleep disorders early could reduce the risks regardless of genetic predisposition.

Professor Fuzhong Xue from Shandong University in China stated, “A healthful sleep pattern is associated with a lower incidence of asthma in adult populations and could be beneficial to asthma prevention regardless of genetic conditions.”

“Early detection and treatment of sleep disorders may reduce the incidence of asthma,” he added in the paper.

A healthy sleep pattern was characterized by an early chronotype, 7-9 hours of sleep per night, the absence of insomnia, snoring, and frequent daytime lethargy.

The team used 455,405 UK Biobank participants who were between 38 and 73 years old when they were enrolled between 2006 and 2010 for the study.

Approximately one-third of participants (150,429) were classified as ‘high’ genetic risk and another third (151,979) as ‘intermediate’ genetic risk. The rest were categorized as “low risk.”

Those with the highest genetic risk were 47 percent more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than those with the lowest risk, while those with a poor sleep pattern were 55 percent more likely.

Those with both a poor sleep pattern and a high genetic risk were 122% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than those with both a healthful sleep pattern and a low genetic risk.

In other terms, they were over twice as likely to receive an asthma diagnosis.

Additional in-depth analysis on a smaller group of individuals revealed that a healthy sleep pattern could reduce the likelihood of asthma by 37% in those at high genetic risk.

The relationship between sleep and asthma may be bidirectional, suggest the researchers.

“Theoretically, the immune response to inflammation could generate pro-inflammatory cytokines that lead to cellular infiltration and airway inflammation, thereby increasing the risk of asthma,” the researchers noted.

However, the researchers stated, “Since this is an observational study, the cause cannot be determined.”