中老年期生物衰老时钟的睡眠图表

Sleep chart of biological ageing clocks in middle and late life

·Nature(2026)   Published:13 May 2026NEWS

·13 May 2026

【论文DOI】：10.1038/s41586-026-10524-5

Abstract

Optimal sleep has a vital role in promoting healthy ageing and enhancing longevity. Here we propose Sleep Chart to assess the relationship between self-reported sleep duration and 23 biological ageing clocks derived from in vivo imaging1, plasma proteomics2 and metabolomics3. First, a systemic, U-shaped pattern emerges between sleep duration and biological age gaps across nine brain and body systems and three omics technologies. The sample-specific lowest biological age gaps are achieved between 6.4 and 7.8h of sleep duration, varying by organ and sex in the UK Biobank (aged 37–84years). Furthermore, short (<6h) and long (>8h) sleep duration, compared with a normal sleep duration (6–8h), are associated with increased risk of systemic diseases beyond the brain and all-cause mortality, with evidence from genetic correlations and time-to-incident survival predictions, such as depression and diabetes. Finally, the pathways by which long and short sleep duration are associated with late-life depression differ: ageing clocks may partially mediate the pathway for long sleep duration, while short sleep duration shows a more direct link. Although Mendelian randomization does not provide strong evidence that disease causally affects sleep, it cannot completely exclude such reverse causality. Our findings suggest a cross-organ, multi-omics U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and biological ageing clocks, highlighting the potential of sleep optimization to promote healthy ageing, lower disease risk and extend longevity.

摘要(翻译）

理想的睡眠对于促进健康老龄化、延长寿命具有至关重要的作用。在此，我们提出“睡眠图表”来评估自我报告的睡眠时间与源自体内成像1、血浆蛋白质组学2和代谢组学3的23种生物衰老时钟之间的关系。首先，睡眠时间与各个脑部及身体系统以及三种组学技术之间的生物年龄差距之间呈现出一种系统性的U型模式。样本特定的最低生物年龄差距出现在睡眠时间达到6.4至7.8小时之间，具体数值因器官和性别不同而在英国生物样本库(年龄范围为37至84岁)中有所变化。此外，与正常睡眠时长(6-8小时)相比，睡眠时间过短(<6小时)或过长(>8小时)均与大脑以外系统性疾病的患病风险增加以及全因死亡率升高相关联。这一结论基于遗传关联性及事件发生至生存预测时间等方面的证据，例如抑郁症和糖尿病。最后，长期和短期睡眠时长与晚年抑郁症之间的关联途径有所不同:衰老时钟可能在一定程度上介导了长期睡眠时长的关联路径，而短期睡眠时长则显示出更为直接的联系。尽管孟德尔随机化方法并未提供确凿的证据表明疾病会对睡眠产生因果影响，但它并不能完全排除这种逆向因果关系的存在。我们的研究结果表明，睡眠时间与生物衰老时钟之间存在一种跨器官、多组学特征的U型关系，这突显了通过优化睡眠来促进健康老龄化、降低疾病风险并延长寿命的潜力。

Main

Sleep is a fundamental biological process that is essential for physical restoration, cognitive functioning and overall health. Increasing evidence underscores its association with ageing4, disease susceptibility5 and longevity6. Both insufficient and excessive sleep duration have been linked to a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including cardiometabolic disease7, cognitive decline8 and psychiatric disorders, such as late-life depression (LLD)9. Importantly, sleep is probably modifiable, making it a potential target for promoting healthy ageing and reducing the burden of age-related diseases across the lifespan.

In parallel, the field of ageing research has seen rapid progress through the development of biological ageing clocks derived from imaging and multi-omics data, like magnetic resonance imaging (MRIBAG)1,10, plasma proteomics (ProtBAG)2 and metabolomics (MetBAG)3. These clocks aim to quantify the biological age of individuals across organ systems and molecular layers, enabling a more granular understanding of ageing beyond chronological or calendar age. Organ-specific biological age gaps (BAGs) derived from these clocks have been used as intuitive and personalized biomarkers to quantify biological ageing and have shown great predictive value for disease morbidity, cognition and mortality risk11. This multi-organ, multi-omics ageing clock framework offers a promising avenue to model human ageing and disease in a multisystem and personalized manner.

主标题（翻译）

睡眠是一种基本的生物过程，对于身体的恢复、认知功能的发挥以及整体健康都至关重要。越来越多的证据显示它与衰老、疾病易感性以及寿命之间存在关联。无论是睡眠时间不足还是过长，都已被与多种不良健康后果联系起来，包括心血管代谢疾病、认知功能下降以及精神疾病，如终末期抑郁症(LLD)。重要的是，睡眠扮演着关键角色可能被修改，使其成为促进健康老龄化和减轻全生命周期年龄相关疾病负担的潜在目标。

与此同时，衰老研究领域也通过开发基于成像和多组学数据的生物衰老时钟取得了快速进展，这些时钟包括磁共振成像(MRIBAG)1、10、血浆蛋白质组学(ProtBAG)2和代谢组学(MetBAG)3。这些时钟旨在量化个体在不同器官系统和分子层面的生物年龄，从而实现对衰老的更精细理解，超越单纯的时序或日历年龄范畴。从这些时钟中衍生出的器官特异性生物年龄差距(BAGs)已被用作直观且个性化的生物标志物，用于量化生物衰老情况，并显示出对疾病发病率、认知能力和死亡风险具有显著的预测价值11。这一多器官、多组学衰老时钟框架为以多系统化和个性化方式模拟人类衰老和疾病提供了一条颇具前景的途径。

Sleep linked to slower ageing: huge study pinpoints the right amount

Health outcomes were better in people who slept for between about six and eight hours a day.

By Heidi Ledford

睡眠与延缓衰老相关:最大规模研究确定了合适的睡眠时长

每天睡眠时间在六到八小时之间的人健康状况更好

作者:海蒂·莱德福德

（原文摘要）

A sweeping analysis of sleep duration and signs of ageing in half a million adults has pinpointed a sweet spot — about six to eight hours of sleep each day — that is linked to a lower risk of early death and disease.

Getting either more or less sleep than that was associated with accelerated ageing, which was measured by nearly two dozen different biological ageing ‘clocks’ that aim to assess ageing’s impact on the body.

The results, published1 in Nature on 13 May, do not mean that six to eight hours is the optimum amount of sleep for every person; nor do they prove that achieving that ‘Goldilocks’ range of sleep each day directly improves health or slows ageing. But the study does provide one of the most comprehensive snapshots of the interplay between sleep and ageing throughout the body.

The results bolster a hopeful hypothesis: that improving sleep duration might offer a tractable way to reduce the risk of age-related disease, says Abigail Dove, a neuroepidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who was not associated with the study. “Sleep affects every organ of the body,” she says. “And sleep is somewhat modifiable. This is a tool that could help.”

对50万成年人的睡眠时长和衰老迹象进行的全面分析，已确定了一个理想区间一一每日约6至8小时的睡眠时间，这被认为与降低早逝和患病风险存在关联。睡眠时间比上述标准多或少均与衰老加速有关。这一现象可通过近二十种不同的生物衰老“计时器”来加以衡量，这些计时器旨在评估衰老对身体的影响。

相关结果已于5月13日发表在《自然》杂志上。这并不意味着6至8小时是适用于每个人的最佳睡眠时长;也不意味着达到这种“适中”的每日睡眠量就能直接改善健康状况或延缓衰老。但这项研究确实为我们提供了关于睡眠与全身衰老之间相互作用的最为全面的概览。

这些研究结果支持了一种充满希望的假说:延长睡眠时间或许能为降低与年龄相关的疾病风险提供一条可行的途径。斯德哥尔摩卡罗林斯卡研究所的神经流行病学家阿比盖尔·多芙表示:“睡眠影响着人体的每一个器官。”她说:“而睡眠在某种程度上是可以改变的。这是一项有望发挥作用的工具。”

Light sleeper

Previous research also examined the relationship between sleep duration and a person’s ‘biological’ age, as assessed by clocks based on data such as biomarker levels. One such study2 found a U-shaped relationship between sleep and ageing, in which the difference between a person’s biological age and their chronological age was lowest for study participants who slept for about 7 hours per day. Ageing seemed to accelerate in people who slept much more or less than this.

浅睡眠者（翻译）

先前的研究还考察了睡眠时长与个人“生物”年龄之间的关系，这种评估是基于生物标志物水平等数据的时钟。一项此类研究2

研究发现睡眠与衰老之间存在一种U形关系，即研究对象中那些每天睡眠时间约为7小时的人的生理年龄与实足年龄之间的差异最小。相比之下，睡眠时间显著超出或低于这一水平的人，其衰老过程似乎会加速。