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UK Biobank
Also known as: UKB
Facts (64)
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Impact of sleep duration on executive function and brain structure nature.com Mar 3, 2022 57 facts
procedureCognitive testing in the UK Biobank study was performed at the initial baseline visit and the imaging visit, administered via touchscreen and an additional online questionnaire.
claimExecutive Function declines with increasing age, as observed in sliding window analysis of the UK Biobank cohort.
procedureThe UK Biobank study utilized information from an initial baseline visit performed between 2006 and 2010, an imaging visit acquired between 2014 and 2020, and follow-up online questionnaires and hospital record data.
measurementThe UK Biobank cohort analyzed for this study consisted of 479,420 individuals aged 38–73, with a mean age of 57 and a standard deviation of 8 years.
claimAfter controlling for age using a quantile-based, age-residual analysis, seven hours of sleep was associated with the highest Executive Function score in the UK Biobank cohort.
claimThe UK Biobank cohort used in the study has a higher socioeconomic baseline and fewer comorbid diseases compared to the general population.
claimSleep duration remained stable across the age range of the UK Biobank cohort, centered around a median of seven hours.
claimThe UK Biobank study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under REC number 11/NW/0382, and all participants provided written, informed consent.
referenceAlfaro-Almagro, F. et al. published 'Image processing and Quality Control for the first 10,000 brain imaging datasets from UK Biobank' in the journal Neuroimage in 2018.
claimSleeping between six-to-eight hours is associated with greater grey matter volume in frontal, temporal, parietal, and cerebellar brain regions, according to the largest neuroimaging study to date using the UK Biobank cohort.
claimThe UK Biobank is releasing actigraphy data intended to improve the resolution of sleep duration measurements and provide information about sleep quality for future studies.
measurementA subset of 37,553 individuals from the UK Biobank cohort underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, with a mean age of 65 years (SD 8).
measurementThe UK Biobank study measured subjective sleep duration in discrete one-hour blocks, a method that included daytime naps and resulted in a relatively insensitive measure of sleep.
claimThe association between sleep duration and cognition is stronger in younger individuals but remains present in participants over 60 years old, based on analysis of the UK Biobank cohort.
claimIn the UK Biobank cohort, peak cognitive performance in middle-to-late healthy individuals is associated with seven hours of overnight sleep.
measurementIn the UK Biobank cohort, 34.5% of individuals reported snoring, while 58% reported no snoring; 20.8% reported daytime sleepiness 'sometimes' and 2.7% reported it 'often,' while 75.8% reported no daytime sleepiness.
claimSleep duration and cognitive performance show cross-sectional associations in the UK Biobank population, according to a 2017 study in Sleep Medicine.
measurementWithin the UK Biobank cohort, 27.0% of individuals identified as 'morning people,' 8.9% as 'evening people,' and 64.0% as intermediate chronotypes.
claimUK Biobank data is available to all researchers for health-related research and public interest through the Access Management System.
referenceBycroft, C. et al. published 'The UK Biobank resource with deep phenotyping and genomic data' in the journal Nature in 2018.
claimSeven hours of sleep was associated with the highest Executive Function score in the UK Biobank cohort, based on an age-residual analysis that controlled for the confounding effect of age on cognition.
procedureSleep duration data was collected by asking individuals to report the number of hours they sleep every 24 hours during the UK Biobank assessment and again for individuals who attended the imaging visit.
procedureThe UK Biobank study excluded individuals with a history or current diagnosis of neurological disease, stroke, transient ischaemic attack, brain injury, subdural or subarachnoid haematoma, infection of the nervous system, brain abscess, haemorrhage, skull fracture, encephalitis, meningitis, chronic neurological problems, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, head injury, or alcohol, opioid, and other dependencies.
referenceFawns-Ritchie, C. and Deary, I. J. published 'Reliability and validity of the UK Biobank cognitive tests' in the journal PLoS One in 2020.
referenceA subset of 37,898 individuals from the UK Biobank cohort underwent multi-modal brain imaging to explore the relationship between sleep and brain volume.
referenceNobis, L. et al. published 'Hippocampal volume across age: Nomograms derived from over 19,700 people in UK Biobank' in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical in 2019.
measurementThe apolipoprotein-E (APOE) allele frequency within the UK Biobank cohort was 69% for the ε3/3 allele, 27% for individuals with one ε4 allele, and 1% for the ε4/4 genotype.
procedureThe UK Biobank study scored reports of sleepiness and insomnia ordinally based on participant responses of 'never/rarely,' 'sometimes,' and 'usually.'
measurementThe study of sleep duration and cognitive function in the UK Biobank analyzed data from 479,420 middle-to-late life individuals aged 38–73 years.
measurementA sub-group of 37,553 individuals from the UK Biobank study was analyzed to determine the relationship between sleep duration and brain structure.
claimSliding window analysis of the UK Biobank cohort data showed a decline in Executive Function with increasing age.
accountThe authors of the study investigated data from the UK Biobank, which consists of a large population cohort of middle-to-late age individuals who underwent medical, lifestyle, and genetic assessments.
measurementThe median self-reported daily sleep duration for the 479,420 individuals in the UK Biobank cohort was seven hours.
procedureResearchers performed a whole brain analysis using T1 volumetric MRI data from 37,553 individuals in the UK Biobank cohort, dividing the brain into 139 cortical and subcortical regions of interest based on the Harvard-Oxford Atlases.
claimGenotyping for the UK Biobank study was performed by Affymetrix using bespoke Axiom arrays.
referenceThe study 'Associations of adherence to a healthy sleep pattern with the dementia risk in the UK biobank' was published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy in 2025.
measurementThe UK Biobank study analyzed data from 479,420 participants aged between 38 and 74 years, including detailed health, demographic, and cognitive assessments.
measurementIn a study of 37,553 UK Biobank participants, 46 brain regions were significantly larger in volume in individuals who slept between six and eight hours compared to those with other sleep durations, including the orbital frontal cortex, pre-and post-central gyri, right frontal pole, hippocampi, and thalami.
procedureThe UK Biobank study measured sleep duration by asking participants to report the number of hours they sleep every 24 hours, with data collected during the initial UK Biobank assessment and again for participants who attended the imaging visit.
measurementRegarding insomnia reports in the UK Biobank cohort, 24.2% of individuals responded 'never/rarely,' 47.8% responded 'sometimes,' and 28.0% responded 'usually.'
claimKyle et al. identified cross-sectional associations between sleep and cognitive performance in the UK Biobank.
referenceA mendelian randomisation study on the UK Biobank cohort suggests that an optimal sleep duration exists to impact daily cognitive function and healthy cognitive ageing.
referenceFry, A. et al. published 'Comparison of sociodemographic and health-related characteristics of UK biobank participants with those of the general population' in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2017.
procedureThe UK Biobank study analyzed five cognitive tasks to index executive function: a pairs matching task (measuring errors), the Trail-making task (measuring completion time difference between numeric and alphanumeric versions), the Tower Rearranging task (measuring accuracy), a variation of the card game Snap (measuring reaction time), and the Symbol-Digit Substitution task (measuring accuracy).
measurementPeak cognitive performance in the UK Biobank cohort was associated with seven hours of overnight sleep.
claimThe UK Biobank study was unable to reliably assess sleep quality or the specific nature of sleep, such as the proportion of time spent in different sleep stages, despite including reports of insomnia in the regression model.
measurementThe UK Biobank study analyzed sleep and cognitive data from 479,420 healthy individuals aged 38–73 years and examined brain structure in a sub-group of 37,553 individuals.
claimThe study of sleep duration and brain structure analyzed cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank cohort, which consists of individuals with a higher socioeconomic baseline and fewer comorbid diseases compared to the general population.
referenceThe study 'Sleep and physical activity trade-offs and dementia risk: a prospective cohort study in UK Biobank participants' was published in BMC Medicine in 2025.
measurementWithin the UK Biobank cohort, 1% of individuals were diabetic, 13% were hypertensive, 18% had high cholesterol, and the average body-mass index (BMI) was 27.4.
measurementThe 479,420 individuals in the UK Biobank cohort had a mean age of 57 years (SD 8) at the time of assessment.
referenceMiller, K. L. et al. published 'Multimodal population brain imaging in the UK Biobank prospective epidemiological study' in the journal Nature Neuroscience in 2016.
measurementThe imaging analysis in the UK Biobank study utilized MRI data from 37,533 participants.
referenceThe study examined the relationship between sleep duration and cognitive performance in 479,420 healthy individuals aged 38 to 73, using data from the UK Biobank.
referencePrevious studies using UK Biobank cognitive tests associated sleeping 10 hours or more (long sleep) and six hours or less (short sleep) with worse cognitive performance.
measurementThe study analyzed data from 479,420 participants aged 38 to 74 years from the UK Biobank, including health, demographic, and cognitive assessments.
claimSelf-reported sleep duration data in the UK Biobank study may be subject to reporting inaccuracy and recall bias, as older adults often report longer sleep durations than objective measurements indicate, particularly when sleep quality is poor.
Sleep Across the Lifespan: A Neurobehavioral Perspective link.springer.com Feb 5, 2025 2 facts
referenceBurns AC, Saxena R, Vetter C, Phillips AJK, Lane JM, and Cain SW published a study in 2021 titled 'Time spent in outdoor light is associated with mood, sleep, and circadian rhythm-related outcomes: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study in over 400,000 UK Biobank participants' in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
referenceBurns et al. conducted a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of over 400,000 UK Biobank participants, demonstrating that time spent in outdoor light is associated with mood, sleep, and circadian rhythm-related outcomes.
Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span nature.com Dec 5, 2019 1 fact
referenceA 2026 study published in Nutrition & Metabolism analyzed the relationship between visceral fat metabolism scores and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome stages in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality using data from the UK Biobank.
Sexual dimorphism in human skeletal muscle ageing - medRxiv medrxiv.org Nov 12, 2025 1 fact
referenceThe UK Biobank (UKB) is a prospective cohort study of over 500,000 UK participants aged 40–70 years at recruitment between 2006 and 2010, representing over 3% of the total UK population in that age range.
U shaped association between sleep duration and long ... nature.com by F Feng · 2025 1 fact
referenceHuang, T., Beydoun, M. A., Kianersi, S., Redline, S., and Launer, L. J. authored the study 'Multi-dimensional sleep health and dementia risk: A prospective study in the UK biobank', published in BMC Medicine in 2025.
The battle of the sexes: Whose brain comes out on top? pennneuroknow.com Dec 23, 2025 1 fact
referenceRitchie et al. (2018) analyzed data from 5,216 UK Biobank participants to provide evidence regarding sex differences in the adult human brain, published in Cerebral Cortex.
Diet Quality Indices: Measures for Bridging Nutrition and Public Health link.springer.com 2 days ago 1 fact
referenceWang et al. (2024) found an association between a healthy plant-based heart-protective diet and reduced cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality in the UK Biobank Study.