Short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and health-related disorders all impact on individual health. Epidemiologic data suggest an association of sleep duration and poor sleep quality with cardiometabolic health (e.g. hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases), mental problems (e.g. depression), and mortality. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on a possible relationship between sleep patterns and the presence of two or more chronic diseases in the same individual (i.e. multimorbidity). The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of short sleep duration in Luxembourg, as well as whether sleep duration was associated with multimorbidity after adjusting for sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics.

Cross-sectional data on 1508 residents of Luxembourg, aged 25 to 64, were collected from the Luxembourg European Health Survey (EHES-LUX). Short sleep duration was defined as less than 7h per night when participants did not have to work the next day. Multimorbidity was defined as having been diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases or conditions. The association between sleep duration and multimorbidity was assessed using multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, immigration, and physical activity.

Participants reported sleeping 7.86h per night when not having to work the next day, nearly one hour more than when they did have to work on the following day. Nearly half of participants reported having been diagnosed with two or more chronic conditions/diseases and 13.5% reported short sleep duration. Short sleep duration was significantly, linearly associated with the number of chronic conditions (RRR: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.44, 4.41 and RRR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.65, 4.68 for 2 and ≥ 3 chronic conditions/diseases, respectively) independently of socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics.

Health promotion programs should be addressed to improve and promote healthy sleeping habits among the general population, which in turn may be beneficial on a number of chronic disease outcomes.