Genetic architecture of sleep in a genome wide association study of device measured sleep traits

Journal article

Sleep is essential for health and regulated by genetic and environmental factors. We perform genome-wide association studies of device-measured sleep duration, efficiency, and accelerometer-derived rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in 80,013 UK Biobank participants. We identify 20 autosomal loci, 12 of which have not been previously reported, including genome-wide significant associations for REM and NREM sleep duration. MEIS1 shows strong opposing effects on REM and NREM durations and is intolerant to loss-of-function mutations, suggesting an essential role in the regulation of REM/NREM sleep balance. Functional enrichment analysis identifies statistically significant pathways related to chromatin remodelling, lipid metabolism, and metal ion homeostasis while tissue enrichment analysis highlights significant signals in the hypothalamus and frontal cortex. Sex-stratified analyses identify distinct loci, including FOXP2 and NRXN3 in females and LRP1B, NPBWR2, and PABPC4 in males. Mendelian randomization supports associations between shorter sleep duration and higher cardiometabolic risk. These findings highlight sex- and phase-specific regulators of human sleep architecture, providing biological insights and potential therapeutic targets.

Authors: Portas, L; Yuan, H; Cai, L; Smith-Byrne, K; van Duijvenboden, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 4715
• Publication date: 2026-04-01
• Acceptance date: 2026-03-16
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-71252-y
• EISSN: 2041-1723
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Language: English
• Keywords: Sleep (system call); Non-rapid eye movement sleep; Mendelian randomization; Genetic architecture; Genome-wide association study; Biobank; Eye movement; Genetic association; Polysomnography