Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 3 — Observational / field trialPeer-reviewed

Genetic studies of accelerometer-based sleep measures yield new insights into human sleep behaviour

Samuel E. Jones, Vincent T. van Hees, Diego R. Mazzotti, Pedro Marques‐Vidal, Sèverine Sabia, Ashley van der Spek, Hassan S. Dashti, Jorgen Engmann, Desana Kocevska, Jessica Tyrrell, Robin N. Beaumont, Melvyn Hillsdon, Katherine S. Ruth, Marcus A. Tuke, Hanieh Yaghootkar, Seth A. Sharp, Yingjie Ji, Jamie Harrison, Rachel M. Freathy, Anna Murray, Annemarie I. Luik, Najaf Amin, Jacqueline M. Lane, Richa Saxena, Martin K. Rutter, Henning Tiemeier, Zoltán Kutalik, Meena Kumari, Timothy M. Frayling, Michael N. Weedon, Philip Gehrman, Andrew R. Wood

Nature Communications · 2019

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Summary

This large-scale genetic study analysed accelerometer data from over 85,000 UK Biobank participants to identify genetic variants associated with objectively measured sleep traits. The authors identified 47 genetic associations, including 26 novel loci for sleep quality and 10 for sleep duration, with enrichment for serotonin processing genes among sleep quality variants. The findings represent an advance over previous self-report-based sleep studies, though the authors acknowledge limitations inherent in accelerometer-derived sleep measures.

UK applicability

As the study directly employed UK Biobank data from United Kingdom residents, the genetic findings are directly applicable to understanding sleep regulation in UK populations. The findings may inform future research into sleep disorders and their genetic basis within UK healthcare and research contexts.

Key measures

Accelerometer-derived sleep traits (sleep quality, sleep quantity, sleep timing); genetic variants; P-values; association significance thresholds (P < 5 × 10−8 and P < 8 × 10−10)

Outcomes reported

The study identified 47 genetic associations with sleep traits (sleep quality, quantity, and timing) at genome-wide significance in 85,670 UK Biobank participants, with 26 novel associations for sleep quality and 10 for nocturnal sleep duration. A missense variant in PDE11A was identified as a likely causal variant for sleep duration.

Theme
Measurement & metrics
Subject
Other / interdisciplinary
Study type
Research
Study design
Genome-wide association study (GWAS) with validation cohort
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
United Kingdom
System type
Human clinical
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-09576-1
Catalogue ID
SNmohdwd20-sin35h

Topic tags

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