Abstract
We examined the association between plasma metabolites and abnormal sleep patterns using data from the Southall and Brent REvisited (SABRE) cohort. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy provided 146 circulating plasma metabolites. Sleep questionnaires identified the presence or absence of: difficulty falling asleep, early morning waking, waking up tired, and snoring. Metabolites were compared between the sleep quality categories using the t test, and then filtered using a false discovery rate of 0.05. Generalised linear models with logit-link assessed the associations between filtered metabolites and sleep phenotypes. Adjustment was made for important demographic and health-related covariates. In all, 2,718 participants were included in the analysis. After correcting for multiple testing, three metabolites remained for difficulty falling asleep, 59 for snoring, and none for early morning waking and waking up tired. After adjusting for sex, age, ethnicity and years of education, 1 standard deviation increase in serum histidine and valine associated with lower odds of difficulty falling asleep by 0.89-0.90 (95% confidence intervals [CIs] 0.80-0.99). Branched-chain and aromatic amino acids (odds ratios [ORs] 1.19-1.25, 95% CIs 1.09-1.36) were positively associated with snoring. Total cholesterol in low-density lipoprotein (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83-0.97) and high-density lipoprotein (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.95) associated with lower odds of snoring. In the fully adjusted model, most associations persisted. To conclude, histidine and valine associated with lower odds of difficulty falling asleep, while docosahexaenoic acid and cholesterol in low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein subfractions associated with lower odds of snoring. Identified metabolites could provide guidance on the metabolic pathways associated with adverse sleep quality.