Association of Subjective and Objective Measures of Sleep With Gut Microbiota Composition and Diversity in Older Men: The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study

Background Growing evidence suggests bidirectional links between gut microbiota and sleep quality as shared contributors to health. Little is known about the relationship between microbiota and sleep among older persons. Methods We used 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize stool microbiota among men (n = 606, mean [standard deviation] age = 83.9 [3.8]) enrolled in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study from 2014 to 2016. Sleep was assessed concurrently by a questionnaire (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index [PSQI]), and activity monitor to examine timing (acrophase) and regularity of patterns (F-statistic). Alpha diversity was measured using Faith's phylogenetic diversity (PD). Beta diversity was calculated with robust Aitchison distance with matrix completion (RPCA) and phylogenetic-RPCA (PRPCA). Their association with sleep variables was tested with partial distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA). Predictive-ratio biomarkers associated with sleep measurements were identified with CoDaCoRe. Results In unadjusted analyses, men with poor sleep (PSQI >5) tended to have lower alpha diversity compared to men with normal sleep (Faith's PD, beta = -0.15; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.30 to 0.01, p = .06). Sleep regularity was significantly associated with RPCA and PRPCA, even after adjusting for site, batch, age, ethnicity, body mass index, diabetes, antidepressant and sleep medication use, and health behaviors (RPCA/PRPCA dbRDA; p = .033/.002). In taxonomic analysis, ratios of 7:6 bacteria for better regularity (p = .0004) and 4:7 for worse self-reported sleep (p = .005) were differentially abundant: some butyrate-producing bacteria were associated with better sleep characteristics. Conclusions Subjective and objective indicators of sleep quality suggest that older men with better sleep patterns are more likely to harbor butyrate-producing bacteria associated with better health.