Relationship between body mass index and perceived insufficient sleep among U.S. adults: an analysis of 2008 BRFSS data

We analyzed data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey (N = 384,541) in which respondents were asked, "During the past 30 days, for about how many days have you felt you did not get enough rest or sleep?" We divided respondents into six BMI categories and used multivariable linear regression and logistic regression analyses to assess the association between BMI categories and days of insufficient sleep after adjusting for sociodemographic variables, smoking, physical activity, and frequent mental distress.Adjusted mean days of insufficient sleep ranged from 7.9 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.8, 8.0) days for people of normal weight to 10.5 (95% CI: 10.2, 10.9) days for those in the highest weight category (BMI ≥ 40). Days of perceived insufficient sleep followed a linear trend across BMI categories. The likelihood of reporting ≥14 days of insufficient sleep in the previous 30 days was higher for respondents in the highest weight category than for those who were normal weight (34.9% vs. 25.2%; adjusted odds ratio = 1.7 (95% CI: 1.5, 1.8]).Among U.S. adults, days of insufficient rest or sleep strongly correlated with BMI. Sleep sufficiency should be an important consideration in the assessment of the health of overweight and obese people and should be considered by developers of weight-reduction programs.Over the past 50 years, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults has nearly tripled from about 13% in 1960-1962 to 34% in 2007-2008 [1,2]. Obesity is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and obstructive sleep apnea [3-6]. As the prevalence of obesity increased, the percentage of U.S. adults who reported an average of ≤6 hours of sleep per day also increased, from 22-23% in 1985 to nearly 30% in 2005-2007 [7,8]. Results from a recent analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 2008 showed that only 30% of U.S. adults felt they had rec