• sleep apnoea

One of the consequences of living in an increasingly 24-hour modern society, in which we have access to artificial indoor lighting and smartphones, is the increased risk of sleep loss. Indeed, over the last few decades, sleep curtailment has become highly prevalent. The number of American adults reporting sleeping habitually less than 5 or 6 hours per night has increased to 12% and 23%, respectively. Given that sleep plays an important role in every aspect of biology, it is not surprising that accumulating laboratory and epidemiological evidence has shown an association between short sleep duration with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders.1 Separately, the global burden of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has reached epidemic proportions, affecting nearly one billion people.2 Untreated OSA, which leads to intermittent hypoxaemia and arousals, has also been associated with worse cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes.3 More recently, the association between sleep duration and quality and chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been gaining attention.

In this issue of Thorax, Jackson and colleagues4 report their findings from a cross-sectional analysis examining the associations between multiple, objectively …