Inverse relationship between sleep duration and myopia

Purposes To investigate the association between sleep duration and myopia. Methods This population‐based, cross‐sectional study using a nationwide, systemic, stratified, multistage, clustered sampling method included a total of 3625 subjects aged 12–19 years who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008–2012. All participants underwent ophthalmic examination and a standardized interview including average sleep duration (hr/day), education, physical activity and economic status (annual household income). Refractive error was measured by autorefraction without cycloplegia. Myopia and high myopia were defined as ≤−0.50 dioptres (D) and ≤−6.0 D, respectively. Sleep durations were classified into 5 categories: <5, 6, 7, 8 and >9 hr. Results The overall prevalence of myopia and high myopia were 77.8% and 9.4%, respectively, and the overall sleep duration was 7.1 hr/day. The refractive error increased by 0.10 D per 1 hr increase in sleep after adjusting for potential confounders including sex, age, height, education level, economic status and physical activity. The adjusted odds ratio ( OR ) for refractive error was 0.90 (95% confidence interval [ CI ], 0.83–0.97) per 1 hr increase in sleep. The adjusted OR for myopia was decreased in those with >9 hr of sleep ( OR , 0.59; 95% CI , 0.38–0.93; p for trend = 0.006) than in those with <5 hr of sleep. However, high myopia was not associated with sleep duration. Conclusions This study provides the population‐based, epidemiologic evidence for an inverse relationship between sleep duration and myopia in a representative population of Korean adolescents.