Abstract
Sleep duration has been contemporaneously associated with physical frailty, but their prospective association remains unclear. In this study, we used data from 10,792 participants in the Singapore Chinese Health Study who were followed up over 20 years. Sleep durations were recorded at baseline (mean age: 52y), second follow-up (mean age: 64y) and third follow-up (mean age: 72y). Physical frailty was assessed using a modified frailty phenotype at the third follow-up. Compared to 7h/day, short sleep durations of ≤5h/day at baseline and second follow-up were associated with increased likelihood of physical frailty [ORs (95% CIs): 1.43 (1.14-1.79) and 1.29 (1.04-1.60)]. Long sleep durations of ≥9h/day at baseline and second follow-up were also associated with increased likelihood of physical frailty [ORs (95% CIs): 1.62 (1.26-2.08) and 1.27 (1.06-1.53)]. Compared to those who maintained 6-8h/day of sleep at both time-points, baseline short sleepers who prolonged their sleep by ≥2h at second follow-up, as well as baseline long sleepers who shortened their sleep by ≥2h at second follow-up, still had increased likelihood of physical frailty at third follow-up. In this cohort, both short and long sleep durations at midlife, irrespective of changes thereafter, were associated with increased likelihood of physical frailty in late life.
Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to data privacy laws, but they are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Ms. Siew-Hong Low of the National University of Singapore for supervising the fieldwork of the Singapore Chinese Health Study.
Funding
This work was supported by the Singapore National Medical Research Council [NMRC/CSA/0055/2013, Singapore Strategic Cohorts Consortium Award (23-1034-A0001)]; the United States National Institutes of Health [UM1 CA182876, R01 CA144034]; and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. W.-P.K. is supported by the National Medical Research Council, Singapore [CSA-SI (MOH-000434)]. The sponsors had no role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, or decision to submit the article for publication.
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KY Chua: Validation, Writing – review & editing. RY Chua: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft. H Li: Validation, Writing – review & editing. W-S Lim: Investigation, Writing – review & editing. W-P Koh: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
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Chua, K.Y., Chua, R.Y., Li, H. et al. Association between sleep duration from midlife and the risk of physical frailty in late life. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-39228-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-39228-6
