Sleep Duration, Midday Napping, and Serum Homocysteine Levels: A Gene-Environment Interaction Study

The associations of sleep duration and midday napping with homocysteine (Hcy) levels, and whether these sleep behaviors modify the association between genetic predisposition and Hcy levels, has yet to be investigated. We included 19,426 participants without severe health conditions at baseline from the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort. In a subgroup of 15,126 participants with genetic data, a genetic risk score (GRS) based on 18 Hcy-related loci was constructed to test the gene-sleep interactions in Hcy. Hcy levels were higher in subjects with a long sleep duration (>= 9 h) and midday napping (>90 min), as compared to those who reported a moderate sleep duration (7 to <8 h) and midday napping (1-30 min) (all p values < 0.05). A long sleep duration and midday napping showed a joint effect in increasing Hcy (p for trend < 0.001). Significant interactions regarding Hcy levels were observed for a long sleep duration with GRS and MTHFR rs1801133, and long midday napping with DPEP1 rs12921383 (all p values for interaction < 0.05). Overall findings indicated that a long sleep duration and midday napping were associated with elevated serum Hcy levels, independently and jointly, and amplified the genetic susceptibility to higher Hcy.