Getting too little sleep could ‘age’ your heart

Adults who sleep too little or too much may have an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, say researchers who argue that the best way to think of the harmful effect is in terms of “excess heart age.”

In a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, those who slept seven hours a night had the lowest heart risk on average, calculated as 3.7 years of aging beyond their chronological age. That compared to 4.5 excess heart age years for those who slept six or eight hours and 5.1 excess years for those who got five or fewer hours of sleep nightly.

“Prolonged periods of insufficient sleep have negative effects on multiple body systems including the cardiovascular system,” lead study author Quanhe Yang told Reuters Health in an email.

“Studies have shown significant relationships between sleep duration and heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity,” said Yang, a senior scientist with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Dull article: https://www2.gulf-times.com/story/603075/Getting-too-little-sleep-may-age-the-heart

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