Sleep duration and the risk of cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis including dose–response relationship

BACKGROUND: The effect of sleep duration on cancer risk remains controversial. We aimed to quantify the available evidence on this relationship using categorical and dose–response meta-analyses. METHODS: Population-based cohort studies and case-control studies with at least three categories of sleep duration were identified by searching PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library database up to July 2017. RESULTS: Sixty-five studies from 25 articles were included, involving 1,550,524 participants and 86,201 cancer cases. The categorical meta-analysis revealed that neither short nor long sleep duration was associated with increased cancer risk (short: odds ratio [OR] = 1.01, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.97–1.05; long: OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.97–1.07). Subgroup analysis revealed that short sleep duration was associated with cancer risk among Asians (OR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.02–1.80) and long sleep duration significantly increased the risk of colorectal cancer (OR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.08–1.34). The dose–response meta-analysis showed no significant relationship between sleep duration and cancer risk. When treated as two linear piecewise functions with a cut point of 7 h, similar nonsignificant associations were found (per 1-h reduction: OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.98–1.07; per 1-h increment: OR = 1.003, 95% CI = 0.97–1.03). CONCLUSION: Categorical meta-analysis indicated that short sleep duration increased cancer risk in Asians and long sleep duration increased the risk of colorectal cancer, but these findings were not consistent in the dose–response meta-analysis. Long-term randomized controlled trials and well-designed prospective studies are needed to establish causality and to elucidate the mechanism underlying the association between sleep duration and cancer risk. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-5025-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.