Beyond the hours slept: inconsistent sleep routines threaten mental health in 100,000 UK Biobank participants
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Date
2025-12
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Background: Sleep 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. Methods: We 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. Results: Most 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,, 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%. Conclusions: Our 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.
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published
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Journal / series
Volume
25 (1)
Pages / Article No.
4009
Publisher
BioMed Central
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Subject
Mental health; Mental disorders; Sleep; Routine sleep habits; Wearable sensors