This study examined the association between sleep duration trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood and the risk of asthma into young adulthood METHODS: Using data from 10,362 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) free of asthma at baseline, we constructed trajectories of sleep duration from adolescence (age 13-18) to young adulthood (age 24-32), and used them to examine the association between sleep duration patterns and the risk of new-onset asthma using a log-binomial regression model after adjusting for potential confounders.
Results revealed that 14.4% of non-asthmatic participants had persistent short sleep duration, while 80.0% had adequate sleep duration from adolescence through young adulthood. Consistently short-sleepers had 1.52 times the risk of new-onset asthma by age 32 (95% CI 1.11, 2.10) compared with consistently adequate sleepers. The association was stronger in those with a family history of asthma (aRR=2.43, 95% CI 1.15, 5.13) than in those without such history (aRR=1.43, 95% CI 1.05, 1.95).
We conclude that persistent short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of new-onset asthma in young adults. This association may be more pronounced among those at high risk of asthma due to family history.

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