Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Pattern in Old Order Amish and Non-Amish Adults

• Published in: Journal of clinical sleep medicine 2019-09, Vol.15 (9), p.1321-1328
• Main Authors: Zhang, Man, Ryan, Kathleen A, Wickwire, Emerson, Postolache, Teodor T, Xu, Huichun, Daue, Melanie, Snitker, Soren, Pollin, Toni I, Shuldiner, Alan R, Mitchell, Braxton D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1550-9389; 1550-9397
• DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.7928

We hypothesized that sleep duration in the Amish would be longer than in non-Amish. Sleep duration was obtained by questionnaire administered to Amish individuals (n = 3,418) and from the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES; n = 1,912). Self-reported sleep duration was calculated as the difference in usual times that the participants went to bed at night and woke up in the morning. In Amish (43.7 ± 16.7 years) and NHANES (50.0 ± 20.6 years), women had a longer sleep duration than men (P < .0001 in both groups) and sleep was significantly longer in those aged 18-29 years and ≥ 70 years, compared to those aged 30-69 years. Seasonal-adjusted sleep duration was shorter in Amish than that in NHANES (7.8 minutes shorter, age- and sex-adjusted P < .0001). However, Amish were less likely to report sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night (15.4% in Amish versus 20.5% in NHANES, P < .0001). Amish went to bed 80.4 minutes earlier than NHANES and arose 87.6 minutes earlier (age-, sex-, and season-adjusted P < .0001 for both). In the Amish, sleep duration was longer in clerks than in farmers (P < .0001) and was significantly correlated among household members (.15 < r < .62, P < .001), although there was no evidence that this trait was heritable (h² approximately 0) after adjustment for household. The lower frequency of short sleepers in the Amish may contribute to the relatively lower risks of cardiometabolic diseases observed in this population.