Does long-term poor sleep cause bone loss in later life?
Official title: Chronic sleep deficiency as a cause of bone loss in aging
Funded at Medical College of Wisconsin · NIH-11307590 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether ongoing poor sleep in middle-age and older adults can lead to weaker bones, using a long-term rat model that mimics human sleep loss.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Medical College of Wisconsin NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Milwaukee, United States) |
| Project start | April 1, 2024 |
| Project end | March 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $601,313 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG083653-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11307590 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People middle-aged or older with long-term poor sleep or night-shift workers concerned about bone health are the most relevant group for the findings and possible future trials.
✕Less likely to help
Young people with healthy sleep patterns or patients whose bone loss is due to unrelated genetic disorders are unlikely to benefit directly from this specific work.
What this research studies
If you are an older adult worried that not sleeping enough could harm your bones, this research uses adult male and female rats to mimic years of chronic sleep restriction and then checks bone strength and structure. The team will measure bone density, bone remodeling activity, and related hormones and stress signals that might link sleep loss to fracture risk. The experiments focus on long-term changes after skeletal maturity to reflect aging, not on testing medications in people. The goal is to uncover mechanisms so future human studies or prevention strategies can be designed.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could reveal how chronic poor sleep weakens bone and point to ways to prevent age-related bone loss and fractures.
How similar studies have gone: Epidemiologic studies link poor sleep to higher fracture risk and preliminary rat work (including the team's data) shows bone loss, but long-term adult mechanistic studies like this are relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
-
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Everson, Carol a — Medical College of Wisconsin
- Study coordinator: Everson, Carol a
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.