Background. Accumulating evidence supports leukocyte telomere length (LTL) as a biological marker of cellular aging. Poor sleep\nis a risk factor for age-related disease; however, the extent to which sleep accounts for variation in LTL is unknown. Methods. The\npresent study examined associations of self-reported sleep duration, onset latency, and subjective quality with LTL in a communitydwelling\nsample of 245 healthy women in midlife (aged 49ââ?¬â??66 years). Results.While sleep duration and onset latency were unrelated\nto LTL, women reporting poorer sleep quality displayed shorter LTL (r = 0.14, P = 0.03), independent of age, BMI, race, and\nincome (b = 55.48, SE = 27.43, P = 0.04). When analyses were restricted to participants for whom sleep patterns were chronic,\npoorer sleep quality predicted shorter LTL independent of covariates and perceived psychological stress. Conclusions. This study\nprovides the first evidence that poor sleep quality explains significant variation in LTL, a marker of cellular aging.
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