From journal Scientific Reports, lead by University of South Florida researchers, found detriments of various aspects of sleep can increase the risk of heart disease by as much as 141%.
The authors of the study reviewed sleep data from 6,820 adults, average age of 53 years old of whom had reported their sleep quality and heart disease history. Additionally, 633 of them had worn a research device to digitally record their sleep activity.
Researchers were able to link multiple aspects of sleep health, including regularity, overall satisfaction, alertness during hours of waking, time of sleep, sleep duration and efficiency, etc to physician-confirmed heart disease. They found that each additional increase in self-reported sleep health problems was associated witha 54% increase in heart disease risk. The association was even stronger when self-report was paired and confirmed by electronic device, which reported up to as high as 141% increase risk of heart disease with poor sleep health.
“These findings show the importance of assessing ‘co-existing sleep health problems’ within an individual to capture the risk of heart disease. This is one of the first studies showing that, among well-functioning adults in midlife, having more sleep health problems may increase the risk of heart disease,” said author, Soomi Lee.
The association remained when the researchers controlled for family history, race, sex, smoking, depression and physical activity. They also found that men were more likely to develop heart disease in general compared to women, but women were more likely to report poor sleep health; however, despite these differences, poor sleep health’s assocation with heart disease risk remained.
Sleep is crucial part of your health that is commonly overlooked and requires your much needed attention. If anything, sleep should be consider a corner stone along with healthy diet and exercise.
S Lee et al. Sleep health composites are associated with the risk of heart disease across sex and race. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05203-0
