A recent study suggests that poor sleep and poor sleep can be a gateway to kidney disease, at least for women .
Researchers at Boston Brigham and Women's Hospital evaluated the sleep habits of thousands of women.
They found that women who slept five hours or less at night had a 65 percent increased risk of a rapid decline in kidney function.
Compared with women who slept seven to eight hours, the researchers found.
"This is worrying because as a general population, the amount of sleep we are getting has declined in the last 20 years"
Said lead investigator, Dr. Ciaran McMullan , professor of medicine.
Previously they were used to sleep an average of eight hours per night, but now it is about 6.5 hoursand declining , he said.
It is not known whether sleeping longer improves renal function or reverses the damage caused by shortened sleep, he said.
Sleeping badly and lack of sleep
McMullan cautioned that this study of decreased renal function is associated with fewer hours of sleep.
It is not that less sleep causes deterioration of kidney function. For that, more research is needed, he said.
A connection between interrupted sleep and heart disease has been studied before.
A link between sleep and reduced kidney function could be the result of medical conditions that affect kidney function, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, McMullan said.
"Diabetes is more common in people who sleep less, as is high blood pressure"
"We know that two of the major factors that decrease kidney function are diabetes and high blood pressure."
Natural body rhythms, or so-called circadian clocks , could also play an important role, McMullan said.
The kidney is programmed to function differently at night than during the day because of demands on the body that are different, he explained.
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"Perhaps short sleep and poor sleep changes the physiology of the kidney during the daily cycle, and these changes could damage the kidney"
As the population ages and as more people suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure ...
The number of people with kidney disease will increase, and lack of sleep can play an important role, he added.
Decreased renal function
"We are a society with lack of sleep," "The concern is that sleep deprivation will lead to a decrease in kidney function."
He said it is likely that the results would also apply to men, but noted that it should be studied.
The results of the study are scheduled to be presented Thursday at a meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego .
The data and conclusions should be considered as preliminary until they are published in a medical journal reviewed by professionals.
For the study, the McMullan team collected data on more than 4,200 women who participated in the study.
For 11 years, women's renal function was measured at least twice
Dr. Kenar Jhaveri, a nephrologist with the North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, NY, said the relationship between sleep and kidney disease is new to him.
"At this point I would be very cautious about giving advice to patients based on this study," he said. "Of course, I would not change any sleep habits."
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Jhaveri said seven hours of sleep is good for health. "People who sleep too little or too much run the risk of certain disorders," he added. "In terms of kidney disease, this is something that is going to be interesting in how it is filtered out."
More information
For more information on bad sleep and kidney health, visit the National Institutes of Health .