Seven Hours of Sleep Could Be Ideal to Protect Against Ocular Disease

Studies that investigate the mechanisms that underlie the association between sleep health and age-related ocular diseases are scarce. A recent investigation published by Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science looked at the incidences of cataract, primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) within a large prospective cohort within the UK Biobank. Its findings revealed U-shaped associations between sleep duration and the incidence of cataract, POAG and DR, highlighting an optimal sleep duration of seven hours per day. Also, a healthier sleep quality was found to predict a lower risk of these three conditions. Poorer sleep quality also increased the risks of these diseases, with insomnia and daytime dozing serving as clear risk factors.“Our study specifically provides evidence that inflammatory status serves as a significant mediator between sleep health and age-related ocular diseases, particularly in cases of cataract and DR,” the researchers wrote in their paper. Inflammatory status may play a mediating role in the sleep-ocular health connection, highlighting anti-inflammatory interventions as a promising strategy in preventing ocular diseases. These graphs from the study show the relationship between sleep duration and the three ocular conditions assessed. Photo: Huang Z, et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025;66(11):15. Click image to enlarge. During a median follow-up of 12.6 years, 42,971 cataract cases, 5,793 POAG cases, 4,267 DR cases, and 7,775 AMD cases were documented. Sleep duration displayed U-shaped relationships with cataract, POAG and DR, identifying seven hours per day as optimal. Poor sleep quality also elevated the risks of cataract (hazard ratio; HR: 1.17) and POAG (HR: 1.21), whereas for DR this effect was not significant but suggestive (HR: 1.15). Sleep behavior traits, including insomnia and daytime dozing, were found to predict higher risks of these diseases. Mediation analysis indicated significant contributions of inflammatory indicators to the associations of poor sleep quality with cataract and DR.The study also found that sleep quality also plays an important role in maintaining ocular health. It determined a non-significant but suggestive association between poor sleep and DR that may have been attributed to the relatively small number of cases in this subgroup. The researchers suggested that poor sleep may increase DR risk partly through higher BMI, hypertension and diabetes, which likely mediate (rather than just confound) this relationship.“Our study specifically provides evidence that inflammatory status serves as a significant mediator between sleep health and age-related ocular diseases, particularly in cases of cataract and DR,” they noted. “Taken together, in the context of sleep-related pathological consequences, the importance of inflammatory mechanisms should be emphasized, and anti-inflammatory therapies may serve as an important potential intervention approach in preventing age-related ocular diseases.”Click here for the journal source. Huang Z, Chen C, Meng J, et al. Associations among sleep duration, sleep quality and age-related ocular diseases: insights from longitudinal and mediation analyses. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025;66(11):15. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.