| Title: | Beyond the hours slept: inconsistent sleep routines threaten mental health in 100,000 UK Biobank participants |
| Journal: | BMC Public Health |
| Published: | 17 Nov 2025 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41250080/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-24794-7 |
| URL: | https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-025-24794-7 |
Publication 18902
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Abstract
BackgroundSleep duration has a well-established effect on mental health and well-being, with durations of 7 to 9 hours being the general recommendation. Here, we analyze the significance of sleep patterns and find that a consistent routine reduces the risk of developing mental disorders far more than simply ensuring a certain average sleep duration.MethodsWe analyzed the sleep behavior of 100,000 adults for one week using motion data from wrist-worn devices. We modeled sleep behavior using multivariate generalized additive Cox proportional hazard models, incorporating a smooth 2D interaction effect of sleep duration and routine sleep hours. We calculated C-statistics and E-values to evaluate model performance and assess the robustness against hidden confounders. We also stratified analyses by age and gender.ResultsMost participants slept for 7 to 9 hours as recommended, yet they consistently only slept during the same 4.8 hours each night. We found that an average sleep duration around 8 hours minimizes the risk of future mental disorders - but only if integrated into a rigorous sleep routine spanning at least the same 7 hours each night. Our study provides evidence that adopting such sleep behavior could reduce the population incidence rate of mental disorders by 23% (HR: 0.79, $$p<0.0001$$, for the average participant). The models showed a strong fit (C-statistics: 0.63), robustness to hidden confounders (E-value: 1.8), and stability under age- and gender-based stratification. We identified weekend behavior as a frequent reason for low sleep routines, with over 25% of the population disrupting their weekly sleep routine during weekend nights - raising the risk of future mental disorders by 10%.ConclusionsOur results suggest that maintaining a consistent sleep routine is more important for mental health than sleep duration alone. Socially disadvantaged groups, including low-income households and ethnic minorities, exhibited poorer sleep routines and thus higher mental disorder risks, underscoring existing social inequalities. Promoting regular sleep behavior may therefore have significant public health benefits.</p>
14 Keywords
- Adult
- Aged
- Biological Specimen Banks
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Mental Disorders
- Mental Health
- Middle Aged
- Proportional Hazards Models
- Sleep
- Time Factors
- UK Biobank
- United Kingdom
2 Authors
- Max Moebus
- Christian Holz
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 96553 | Causal discovery of digital biomarkers to predict long-term mental and physical health |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health