New insomnia study shows how better sleep can reduce heart attack risk

Sleep really does help.

A pair of studies published this week at a leading cardiology conference found that while insomnia can raise your risk of a heart attack, consistent sleep quality can extend your life for years.

People with insomnia are 69% more likely to have a heart attack than those without a sleep disorder, according to a new analysis of previous research presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

A study by an international team of researchers examined the link between insomnia and heart attacks based on data from more than 1 million adults, mean age 52, from six countries. People were categorized as having insomnia if they had at least one of three symptoms:

  • Difficulty falling asleep.
  • It’s hard to sleep.
  • Waking up too early in the morning.

Symptoms must have been present at least three days a week for at least three months. On average, over a nine-year follow-up, people who typically slept five hours or less were 56% more likely to have a heart attack than those who slept the recommended eight hours a night, regardless of age or gender.

More about sleep and health

  • What happens when you don’t get enough sleep? That’s what it does to your heart.
  • Why you shouldn’t try to catch up over the weekend.
  • Best time to sleep? New Science Shows the Sweet Spot for Your 24-Hour Inner Clock.

The researchers hope the study will raise “awareness about the importance of sleep for maintaining heart health,” said study first author Yomna E. Dean, a medical student at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt.

“A lot of people don’t realize how important this is,” Dean said.

“Some people may not necessarily suffer from insomnia, but are sleep deprived by choice,” Dean added. “It’s a common thing these days. These findings apply to anyone who sleeps five hours or less a night.”

An estimated 10% of Americans have some form of insomnia, and it is more common in women, said Dr. Sanjay Patel, director of the Center for Research on Sleep and Cardiovascular Outcomes at the University of Pittsburgh.

“At least in part, this may be because the two most common risk factors for insomnia are anxiety and depression, which are more common in women,” Patel said.

The second study presented at the meeting was on sleep quality. Researchers have found that good sleep habits can benefit the heart and overall health, and even life expectancy. They also found that 8% of deaths from any cause could be attributed to poor sleep patterns.

According to the study, people with the highest quality of sleep lived longer: 4.7 years longer for men and 2.4 years longer for women.

According to Patel, stress is often the cause of brief bouts of insomnia. He noted that for some people, this short-term stress “takes on a life of its own.” “Then insomnia becomes a new stress. The more you worry about it, the harder it is to fall asleep. I’m a little concerned that this study may increase insomnia in some people who will worry that if they can’t sleep anymore, they might have a heart attack.”

How to improve sleep

Patel’s offerings include:

  • Make sure the bedroom environment is comfortable and dark enough.
  • Avoid any chemicals that will stimulate your brain. Caffeine should be avoided at least eight hours before bedtime. The use of nicotine and tobacco products should also be avoided. “Instead, you want to find things to help you relax,” Patel said.
  • Avoid looking at your watch. “Seeing what time it is, people are even more nervous about not being able to sleep,” Patel said. “We want people to do things that distract the brain and maybe even make them a little tired.”
  • Read a book or play a mindless computer game. Knitting or listening to music can help transition you to sleep.
  • Avoid daytime naps. Clinical trials have shown that some short-term sleep deprivation can help improve sleep. “No matter how badly you’ve been sleeping, you want to force yourself to get up and avoid naps,” Patel said. “You will teach your brain to understand that if it does not sleep during the time allotted to you, it will not sleep anymore.
  • Get lots of sunshine. You can start working on your sleep first thing in the morning by making sure you’re exposed to sunlight, which helps calibrate your body clock. “Go outside and take a walk,” said Rebecca Robbins, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “If you are on the subway, go to a stop further than the one you normally take. You want to turn tiny habits into routine.”
  • Focus on relaxing before bed. “You might want to take a warm shower,” Robins said. “If you can’t stop thinking about tomorrow, write a to-do list to get them out of your head.”

It’s important to develop rituals that your brain associates with falling asleep, Robbins says, adding that “it could be reading a book, thinking one happy thought, or meditating.”

If you wake up in the middle of the night, go back to the same set of rituals that got you to sleep earlier, Robbins says.

“If you can’t sleep, don’t go to bed,” Robbins said.


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