Long Sleep and Short Sleep Raise Kidney Risk in Seniors

Older adults often sleep less or more than the usual seven hours, and this can hurt their kidneys. A big study looked at 178, 268 U. S. seniors who answered a health survey in 2022. Researchers split the participants into five groups based on how many hours they slept: no more than five, six, seven, eight, and nine or more. They checked how many people in each group had chronic kidney disease, which affects about seven percent of older adults. The results were clear: both very short and very long sleep increased the chance of kidney problems. Compared with those who slept seven hours, people who slept six hours were about 32 percent more likely to have kidney disease.Those sleeping five or fewer hours faced a 55 percent higher risk, while eight‑hour sleepers had a 27 percent increase. The biggest jump appeared in the nine‑hour group, with a 41 percent higher odds of kidney problems. The pattern stayed the same no matter the person’s gender, age bracket, race or body weight. So it isn’t just one type of older adult who is affected; the link between sleep length and kidney health holds across many groups. The study suggests that staying within a moderate sleep window could help protect kidney function in seniors. Doctors and caregivers should pay attention to how much older patients sleep, not just the quality of that sleep.