Yu LL, Li YT, Li YY. Letter to the Editor: Healthy sleep patterns and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease - insights and considerations. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(43): 123935 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.123935]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Li-Li Yu, PhD, Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Xinxiang Medical University, No. 601 Jinsui Road, Xinxiang 453003, Henan Province, China. 141036@xxmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
letter
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Yu LL, Li YT, Li YY. Letter to the Editor: Healthy sleep patterns and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease - insights and considerations. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(43): 123935 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.123935]
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2026; 32(43): 123935 Published online Nov 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123935
Letter to the Editor: Healthy sleep patterns and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease - insights and considerations
Li-Li Yu, Yu-Ting Li, Yuan-Yuan Li
Li-Li Yu, Yuan-Yuan Li, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, Henan Province, China
Li-Li Yu, Yu-Ting Li, Department of Endocrinology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Yu LL edited and revised the manuscript; Li YT drafted the manuscript; Li YY contributed to literature collection and figure preparation.
AI contribution statement: We used ChatGPT (GPT-4) solely for English language editing and improving the readability of the initial draft of this review. All core academic work, including literature search and selection, logical framework design, critical analysis of published studies, interpretation of research findings, and formulation of all conclusions, was completed entirely by the authors. Every suggestion generated by the AI was manually reviewed, revised, and verified for scientific accuracy by the authors.
Supported by the Science and Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Province, No. 24HASTIT067; and the Henan Province Young and Middle-aged Health Science and Technology Innovation Talent Project, No. JQRC2023001.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Corresponding author: Li-Li Yu, PhD, Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Xinxiang Medical University, No. 601 Jinsui Road, Xinxiang 453003, Henan Province, China. 141036@xxmu.edu.cn
Received: June 4, 2026 Revised: July 22, 2026 Accepted: August 10, 2026 Published online: November 21, 2026 Processing time: 116 Days and 12.3 Hours
Abstract
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a common chronic liver disease associated with metabolic disorders. We read with interest the observational study by Yu et al entitled “Mediating roles of insulin resistance and inflammatory markers between healthy sleep scores and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease”. Suboptimal sleep quality is increasingly recognized as a modifiable risk factor for this condition. Poor sleep patterns, assessed using healthy sleep scores including sleep duration, chronotype, insomnia, sleep apnea, and daytime sleepiness, are linked to increased risk of MASLD. Insulin resistance, remnant cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and systemic inflammation contribute to this association, suggesting that improving sleep health may help prevent or mitigate metabolic liver disease. Further research integrating objective sleep monitoring, refined sleep assessment frameworks, circadian rhythm evaluation, lifestyle factors, metabolic biomarkers, and long-term liver outcomes are warranted to clarify the mechanisms linking sleep health and MASLD and facilitate clinical translation.
Core Tip: Healthy sleep is increasingly recognized as a modifiable determinant of metabolic health. Integrating multidimensional sleep assessment with circadian, lifestyle, and metabolic factors may clarify mechanisms linking sleep and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, supporting improved risk stratification and clinical translation.
