Sleep Deprivation Increases Your Risk For Heart Attack And Stroke

January 15, 2019 |
Persistent sleep deprivation can increase your risk for a heart attack and stroke, a new study finds. In fact, this new research shows that it’s not only how many hours you sleep, but also the quality of it as well.    
Previous research showed that getting enough sleep is critical in maintaining overall health. And now, researchers are pinpointing how sleep affects specific aspects of a person’s health.

For example, poor sleep can indicate the beginning development of Alzheimer’s disease and high blood pressure in women.

 

sleep deprivation

 

Sleep Deprivation: Study Results

Researchers monitored and evaluated the sleep of 3974 participants, average age was 46 years old. Sleep data was collected over a period of seven days.

In addition, prior to the start of the study, all participants were given 3-D heart ultrasounds and cardiac CT scans. to check for the presence of heart disease. The 3-D heart ultrasounds also measured atherosclerosis throughout the body. These data served as the baseline prior to the seven days of sleep monitoring.

The participants were divided into four separate groups:

  • people who slept under 6 hours per night
  • sleeping 6–7 hours per night
  • sleeping 7–8 hours each night
  • people who slept longer than 8 hours.

Sleep Deprivation: Results

The results showed that participants who slept under 6 hours every night had a 27 percent increase in the risk for heart disease, compared to the group that slept between 7 and 8 hours a night.

In addition, poor sleep quality, such as waking up often during the night, increased the risk for heart attack by 34 per cent.

 

Surprisingly, one result was unexpected, And that is, people who slept more than 8 hours  night, especially women, also increased their risk for heart disease and arteriosclerosis.

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