Associations of gut microbiome richness and diversity with objective and subjective sleep measures in a population sample
Holzhausen et al.
The finding, in our words
In 720 adults, poorer objective and subjective sleep measures, including higher actigraphy-measured night-to-night variability, increased wake-after-sleep-onset, lower sleep efficiency, and worse self-reported quality, were associated with reduced gut microbiome richness and diversity. These findings support decentralised monitoring of sleep and microbiome to explore modifiable health pathways.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Self-reported insomnia and excessive sleepiness were associated with depletion of Eubacterium sp. CAG:251, whereas higher actigraphy-measured sleep efficiency increased its prevalence and longer wake after sleep onset reduced it. These findings suggest that subjective and objective sleep disturbances converge on specific gut microbes, supporting the use of stool sampling and wearable actigraphy in decentralised diagnostics.
In a one-week virtual home clinic with 134 participants, 86 per cent returned saliva and 84 per cent returned stool, and most components were feasible and acceptable despite device and logistical challenges. This supports decentralised, patient-centric self-collection of non-blood biospecimens for research.
The Human Phenotype Project enrolled 28,000 participants in a deep-phenotyping cohort that combines blood and microbiome sampling with continuous glucose and sleep monitoring. An AI model trained on dietary and glucose data predicted disease onset more accurately than existing methods, showing how integrating continuous digital signals with multi-omic data can support personalised risk assessment for decentralised diagnostics.
Reicher et al., Nature medicine (paywalled) · source ↗
Probiotic supplementation improved wearable-measured sleep duration in healthy adults, demonstrating that continuous digital sleep metrics can detect clinically meaningful changes from gut microbiota interventions. The trial showed concurrent shifts in stool microbiome composition, short-chain fatty acids and cortisol, linking gut-brain axis modulation to objective sleep outcomes.
In 118 middle-aged volunteers, decreased REM sleep duration was independently associated with worse glucose variability, particularly among those with obesity. Specific gut microbiota species from the Christensenellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae families correlated with both REM sleep duration and continuous glucose values, suggesting an integrated relationship between sleep, glucose metabolism and gut microbiota in metabolic health.
Arnoriaga-Rodríguez et al., The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism (paywalled) · source ↗