Objective To investigate the relationship between sleep duration and the risk of progression of proteinuria in patients with early diabetic kidney disease（DKD）. Methods 857 patients with early DKD admit⁃ ted to our hospital were studied. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the associations between different levels of the sleep duration and the risk of progression of proteinuria in patients with early DKD. Results A total of 765 patients with early DKD were enrolled in our study with an age of（59.1 ± 6.2）years and the median follow⁃up time was 2.8 years. A total of 123 cases with progression of proteinuria were identified in the cohort study. The total incidence of progression of proteinuria was 16.1%，and those in sleep duration < 6，6～ 8，> 8 h/d were 29.4%（45/153），12.5%（70/560）and 15.4%（8/52），respectively，with significant difference （P < 0.05）. Compared with sleep duration 6～8 h，the multivariate adjusted hazard ratio（95% CI）of progression of proteinuria were 1.82（1.14 ～ 2.91）for < 6 h and 1.04（0.75 ～ 1.44）for > 8 h. According to gender，age， BMI，physical activity，smoking and drinking habits，date of the stratified analysis showed that this was consistent with the whole adjusted population. Shorter sleep duration was associated with the risk of progression of proteinuria but no significant association was found between longer sleep duration and the risk. Conclusion Shorter sleep duration seemed to have increased the risk of proteinuria in patients with early DKD.