Abstract
Objectives
To compare mortality risk and life expectancy among individuals with different sleep
durations and sleeping pill use.
Methods
A cohort of 484,916 community-dwelling adults in Taiwan was recruited into a health
screening program from 1994 to 2011. Subjects were categorized by daily sleep duration
into 4 groups: extremely short (<4 hours), short (4-6 hours), medium (6-8 hours),
and long (>8 hours). Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the
associations of mortality risk with sleep duration and sleeping pill use. Models were
adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, and comorbidities. Life
expectancy tables were calculated among sleeping pill users and nonusers with different
sleep durations.
Results
With 6- 8 hours of daily sleep, sleeping pill nonusers had the lowest mortality risk.
Sleeping pill users, even with this optimal amount of sleep, had a 55% (p < .001, 95% CI, 1.38-1.73) higher mortality risk than nonusers. The life expectancy
of 30-year-old male sleeping pill users with extremely short or long sleep durations
was 12-13 years shorter than sleeping pill nonusers who had 6-8 hours of sleep. On
average, life expectancy in individuals using sleeping pills (vs. nonusers) was shorter
by 5.3 (95% CI, 4.10-6.32) years in men and 5.7 (95% CI, 5.28-7.98) years in women.
Conclusions
This study suggests that the use of sleeping pills is associated with an increased
risk of mortality and shortened life expectancy, especially in extreme sleepers. Regular
users should be aware of potential harms from sleeping pills.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 10, 2023
Accepted:
January 31,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 15,
2023
Received:
May 28,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
