Short sleep duration was positively associated with abdominal obesity, overweight, high visceral adiposity index, high triglyceride-glucose index, and high diastolic blood pressure in individuals at secondary healthcare, while long sleep duration showed no association with cardiometabolic risk.
The prevalence of short sleep was 9.8% and long sleep was 36.7% in the secondary healthcare population studied.
Short sleep duration was positively associated with abdominal obesity independent of confounders.
Short sleep duration was positively associated with overweight independent of confounders.
Short sleep duration was positively associated with high visceral adiposity index (VAI), a non-traditional marker of cardiometabolic risk.
Short sleep duration was positively associated with a high triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, a marker of insulin resistance.
Short sleep duration was positively associated with high diastolic blood pressure (DBP).
Long sleep duration was not associated with any traditional or non-traditional markers of cardiometabolic risk.
Short sleep duration was not significantly associated with traditional lipid or glucose markers such as triglycerides, glucose, and glycated hemoglobin in adjusted models.
This research suggests that sleeping too little — defined as fewer hours than recommended by the National Sleep Foundation — is linked to a cluster of health risks including excess belly fat, overall overweight, greater visceral (deep internal) fat accumulation, signs of insulin resistance, and higher diastolic blood pressure (the lower number in a blood pressure reading). The study examined nearly 1,000 adults receiving care at a secondary healthcare facility, meaning patients who already face elevated cardiovascular risk. About 1 in 10 participants were short sleepers (averaging under 6 hours per night), while over a third were long sleepers (averaging over 10 hours per night). Interestingly, sleeping too much was not associated with any of the cardiometabolic risk markers studied, even though long sleep was far more common in this group. The associations for short sleep held up after accounting for other factors that could explain the results, strengthening the case that sleep duration itself may play a role in metabolic and cardiovascular health. The study used both traditional risk measures (like BMI and blood pressure) and newer, less commonly used markers (like the visceral adiposity index and the triglyceride-glucose index) to get a more complete picture of cardiometabolic risk. This research suggests that short sleep duration may be an important but often overlooked factor contributing to poor metabolic and cardiovascular health, particularly among people who are already at elevated risk. Because this was a cross-sectional study (a snapshot in time), it cannot establish that short sleep directly causes these health problems — it only shows that they tend to occur together. Nonetheless, the findings highlight the potential value of assessing sleep habits as part of cardiovascular risk evaluation in clinical settings.
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Upload Your LabsE Oliveira N, Filgueiras M, Zanirate G, Cândido F, Ribeiro S, Hermsdorff H. (2026). Short Sleep Duration Is Positively Associated With Traditional and Non-Traditional Markers of Adiposity and Cardiometabolic Risk in Individuals at Secondary Healthcare: A Cross-Sectional Study.. FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202602078RR