Association of daytime napping frequency and schizophrenia: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: The bidirectional causal association between daytime napping frequency and schizophrenia is unclear. METHODS: A bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted with summary statistics of top genetic variants associated with daytime napping frequency and schizophrenia from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data of daytime napping frequency GWAS came from the UK Biobank (n = 452,633) and 23andMe study cohort (n = 541,333), while the schizophrenia GWAS came from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC, 36,989 cases and 113,075 controls). The inverse variance weighted (IVW) analysis was the primary method, with the weighted median, MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score (RAPS), Radial MR and MR-Pleiotropy Residual Sum Outlier (PRESSO) as sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: The MR analysis showed a bidirectional causal relationship between more frequent daytime napping and the occurrence of schizophrenia, with the odds ratio (OR) for one-unit increase in napping category (never, sometimes, usually) on schizophrenia was 3.38 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.02–5.65, P = 3.58 × 10(–6)), and the beta for the occurrence of schizophrenia on daytime napping frequency was 0.0112 (95%CI: 0.0060–0.0163, P = 2.04 × 10(–5)). The sensitivity analysis obtained the same conclusions. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the bidirectional causal association between more daytime napping frequency and schizophrenia, implying that daytime napping frequency is a potential intervention for the progression and treatment of schizophrenia. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-022-04431-y.