# Associations of self-reported sleep disturbances, sleep onset, and duration with gallstone disease risk

## TL;DR

This study finds that trouble sleeping increases the risk of gallstone disease, while sleep timing and duration have different effects depending on sleep quality.

## Contribution

The study identifies trouble sleeping as an independent risk factor for gallstone disease, beyond sleep timing and duration.

## Key findings

- Trouble sleeping is linked to a 47% higher risk of gallstone disease.
- A sleep onset time of 23:00–00:00 increases gallstone risk by 61% among those without sleep issues.
- Short sleep duration (<6 hours) is associated with a 57% lower gallstone risk.

## Abstract

The role of sleep disturbances in gallstone disease risk remains unclear. We aimed to examine the associations between sleep disturbances and gallstone disease risk.

We analyzed data from 9,059 participants in the NHANES survey (2017–2020). The primary outcome of this study was gallstone disease. Sleep disturbances included trouble sleeping, early or late sleep onset time, and long or short sleep duration. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to evaluate the associations between sleep disturbances and gallstone disease risk.

After adjusting for confounding factors, trouble sleeping was associated with an elevated risk of gallstone disease, with the odds ratio (OR) of 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01–2.15), compared to those without trouble sleeping. In further stratified analysis, among individuals with trouble sleeping, no significant associations were found between different sleep onset intervals, sleep duration and gallstone disease risk. Among participants without trouble sleeping, the sleep onset interval of 23:00 to 00:00 was associated with a significantly increased gallstone disease risk compared to the reference sleep onset interval of 22:00–23:00, with an OR of 1.61 (95% CI: 1.06–2.45). Short sleep duration (<6 h) was associated with a significantly reduced gallstone disease risk compared to the reference sleep duration of 6–8 h, with the OR of 0.43 (95% CI: 0.25–0.75).

This study demonstrates that trouble sleeping increases the risk of gallstone formation, independent of sleep onset time and sleep duration. Among those without trouble sleeping, a sleep onset time between 23:00–00:00 is associated with a higher risk, while short sleep duration (< 6 h) appears protective.