Peer reviewed article authored by (Kabrita CS, Hajjar-Muça TA, Duffy JF). Read article or submit your manuscript for publishing.

Good sleep quality and quantity are fundamental to the maintenance of normal physiological processes. Changes in sleep patterns are commonly observed among young adults and are shown to impact neurocognitive, academic, and psychological well-being. Given the scarcity of sleep information about Lebanon and acknowledging the sex differences in various sleep dimensions, we conducted a study that aimed at assessing sex differences in sleep habits among university students in Lebanon in relation to psychoacademic status. A total of 540 students (50.6% females) completed a questionnaire that inquired about sociodemographics and evaluated sleep quality and depression using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), respectively. The mean PSQI global score (6.57±3.49) indicated poor sleep, with no significant differences between men and women. The sleep/wake rhythm was delayed on weekends for both sexes. Females exhibited earlier bedtimes and rise times and longer sleep durations on both weekdays and weekends. However, unlike males females showed a greater phase delay in wake times than bedtimes on weekends (149 minutes vs 74 minutes, respectively). In all, 70.9% of females suffered from depressive symptoms, which was a significantly higher proportion compared with 58.5% of males (P<0.01). Based on the mean cumulative self-reported grade point average (GPA), the academic performance of females was significantly better than that of males (2.8±0.61 vs 2.65±0.61, P<0.05, respectively). Depression, as scored by CES-D, in females was significantly negatively correlated with the cumulative GPA (r=-0.278, P<0.01), earlier wake time (r=-0.168, P<0.05), and average sleep duration (r=-0.221, P<0.01) on weekdays. GPA of males was significantly correlated with bedtime on weekends (r=-0.159, P<0.05). We conclude that sex differences in sleep timing, such as bedtime/rise time and nocturnal sleep duration, rather than sleep quality exist among Lebanese university students. Sex-specific sleep patterns have differential impact on psychological and academic well-being.

Purpose: To synthesize current evidence on how sleep deprivation, impaired sleep architecture, and circadian misalignment affect cardiovascular and metabolic regulation across autonomic, hormonal, inflammatory, and behavioral pathways, and to highlight remaining research gaps in cardiometabolic sleep medicine. Methods: A structured literature search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify peer‑reviewed primary and review articles published within the past decade, using chronobiological and cardiometabolic search terms. Reference lists of retrieved articles were screened to identify additional relevant studies. Results: Experimental and epidemiologic data consistently link short or disturbed sleep with increased incidence of hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Sleep loss activates the sympathetic nervous system and elevates cortisol, while suppressing growth hormone, thereby promoting vasoconstriction, endothelial dysfunction, and cardiac remodeling. Parallel disruption of leptin, ghrelin, and endocannabinoid signaling increases hunger, caloric intake, and preference for energy‑dense foods, driving weight gain, visceral adiposity, and insulin resistance. Circadian misalignment from shift work and social jet lag further amplifies inflammatory signaling and metabolic risk across the lifespan. Limited interventional data suggest that sleep extension can improve appetite regulation, blood pressure, and some glycemic indices, but mechanistic and long‑term outcomes remain underexplored. Conclusion: Sleep deprivation and circadian disruption mediate cardiometabolic disease through converging neuroendocrine, autonomic, inflammatory, and behavioral pathways. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and integrated multi- “omics” approaches combined with sleep phenotyping to clarify causal mechanisms and identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in clinical sleep medicine.