ArticleEnvironmental research2020
Mercury exposure in relation to sleep duration, timing, and fragmentation among adolescents in Mexico City.
Article in Environmental research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is exposure to chemical pollutants associated with sleep outcomes? A systematic review.Sleep medicine reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Association Between Trace Elements and Sleep Duration in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Evidence from a Kurdish Population in Western Iran.Biological trace element research · 2026Article
- Environmental Determinants of Sleep and Hypertension: A Critical Review of Evidence and Mechanisms.Current hypertension reports · 2026Review
- Associations of a metal mixture and vitamin D with sleep duration among adolescents and young adults from the 2011-2018 NHANES cycles.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2025Article
- Role of toxic and essential elements in sleep duration of patients with cardiovascular diseases.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Addressing sleep deserts: A proposed call for action.Sleep health · 2024Article
- Urinary phthalates, phenols, and parabens in relation to sleep health markers among a cohort of Mexican adolescents.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Third-Trimester Maternal Dietary Patterns Are Associated with Sleep Health among Adolescent Offspring in a Mexico City Cohort.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Prenatal maternal pesticide exposure in relation to sleep health of offspring during adolescence.Environmental research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionMercury intoxication is known to be associated with adverse symptoms of fatigue and sleep disturbances, but whether low-level mercury exposure could affect sleep remains unclear. In particular, children may be especially vulnerable to both mercury exposures and to poor sleep. We sought to examine associations between mercury levels and sleep disturbances in Mexican youth.
methodsThe study sample comprised 372 youth from the Early Life Exposures to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) cohort, a birth cohort from Mexico City. Sleep (via 7-day actigraphy) and concurrent urine mercury were assessed during a 2015 follow-up visit. Mercury was also assessed in mid-childhood hair, blood, and urine during an earlier study visit, and was considered a secondary analysis. We used linear regression and varying coefficient models to examine non-linear associations between Hg exposure biomarkers and sleep duration, timing, and fragmentation. Unstratified and sex-stratified analyses were adjusted for age and maternal education.
resultsDuring the 2015 visit, participants were 13.3 ± 1.9 years, and 48% were male. There was not a cross-sectional association between urine Hg and sleep characteristics. In secondary analysis using earlier biomarkers of Hg, lower and higher blood Hg exposure was associated with longer sleep duration among girls only. In both boys and girls, Hg biomarker levels in 2008 were associated with later adolescent sleep midpoint (for Hg urine in girls, and for blood Hg in boys). For girls, each unit log Hg was associated with 0.2 h later midpoint (95% CI 0 to 0.4), and for boys each unit log Hg was associated with a 0.4 h later sleep midpoint (95% CI 0.1 to 0.8).
conclusionsThere were mostly null associations between Hg exposure and sleep characteristics among Mexican children. Yet, in both boys and girls, higher Hg exposure in mid-childhood (measured in urine and blood, respectively) was related to later sleep timing in adolescence.
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