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Genetic Study Finds Gut Bacteria and Insomnia Drive Each Other

Experts caution that findings drawn from European-only samples with unmeasured lifestyle factors require randomized trials for confirmation.

Man sitting on the edge of his bed with his hand's in his hands in the middle of the night.
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Feedback loop: Gut-fueled insomnia leads to more growth of the bacteria causing it

Overview

  • A Mendelian randomization analysis detected bidirectional causal relationships between insomnia and certain gut bacterial groups, with no evidence of pleiotropy weakening the results.
  • The study integrated insomnia genetic data from 386,533 individuals with microbiome profiles from 18,340 MiBioGen participants and 8,208 from the Dutch Microbiome Project.
  • Fourteen bacterial taxa were linked to 1–4% higher odds of insomnia and eight taxa to 1–3% lower odds.
  • Insomnia corresponded with 43–79% reductions in seven bacterial groups and 65% to fourfold increases in 12 groups, notably implicating the Odoribacter class.
  • Study authors propose probiotics, prebiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation as future treatments, but experts say randomized controlled trials are needed before clinical application.