Symptoms of insomnia, including difficulty falling asleep and prolonged nocturnal awakening, were not associated with dyslipidemia in a study, according to Healio.

The population-based, cross-sectional study used interviews and laboratory data from participants of the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to further examine the association between insomnia and dyslipidemia.

Only participants older than 20 years were included in the forced-entry multiple logistic regression analysis. Data on LDL, triglycerides and HDL were obtained for 4,635, 4,757 and 9,798 survey participants, respectively. Of the eligible survey participants, 10.7% had elevated LDL, 16.3% had high triglycerides and 22.1% had low HDL, according to the researchers.

Dyslipidemia was defined as LDL of 160 mg/dL or higher, triglycerides of 200 mg/dL or higher and HDL of less than 40 mg/dL.

The results suggested no link between symptoms of insomnia at least five times in the past month and elevated levels of cholesterol, even after adjustment for sex, insomnia symptom subtype, insomnia symptom frequency, diagnosis of dyslipidemia and lipid-lowering medication.

However, those who took sleeping pills for their insomnia had a 118% higher risk for elevated LDL (adjusted OR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.14-4.15) compared with those who took sleeping pills but did not have insomnia.

View the full story at www.healio.com