Regularly sleeping more or less than seven hours a day increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study carried out by principal investigator Anoop Shankar, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown, West Virginia and lead author Charumathi Sabanayagam, MD.
Eight percent of the study population (30,397 adults) reported sleeping five hours a day or less (naps included) and analysis showed that they had twice as much risk of having cardiovascular disease than people who reported seven hours of daily sleep. Nine percent of the subjects reported sleeping nine hours or more a day, and they also had a high risk of cardiovascular disease. All the results were adjusted for race, sex, age, smoking, drinking alcohol, BMI, physical activity, hypertension, diabetes and depression.
The study findings suggest that abnormal sleep duration adversely affects cardiovascular health. Sleep disturbances may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease even among apparently healthy subjects.
People sleeping for six or eight hours a day also had a risk of cardiovascular disease, even if less serious. The link between sleeping five hours or less a day and cardiovascular disease was strongest in adults under 60 [years of age] and in women. After excluding from the results subjects suffering from diabetes, depression or hypertension, the higher risk of cardiovascular disease remained for people sleeping five hours or less and nine hours or more per day.
People that sleep five hours or less, usually suffer from sleep deprivation that might cause reduced insulin sensitivity, elevated blood pressure and increased sympathetic activity and lead to hardening of the arteries. People that sleep too much, nine hours or more, can cause an underlying sleep-related breathing disorder or poor sleep quality.
Related posts:
Discussions