Researchers have studied the association between variations in sleep time and the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, heart attack and heart failure. Elements of response.
Sleeping 8 hours a night is not enough to offset the harmful effects of varying bedtimes and wake-up times
According to the report of a scientific study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Healthit is important to sleep between 7 and 9 hours per night. However, the results of this study show that sleeping 8 hours a night is not enough to compensate for the effects of irregular sleep which would increase the risk of cardiovascular problems : like a heart attack or stroke.
A prospective study of 72,269 British participants
A prospective study was carried out among adults aged 40 to 79 years, whose information was taken from the British Biobank and who wore accelerometers attached to the wrist for 7 days.
Sleep Regularity Index (SRI) scores were calculated for each participant using a validated algorithm, and classified as irregular (SRI 87.3 (reference group)). Information on major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and its subtypes (myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke) was obtained from hospitalization and death records.
Result : Irregular sleep was strongly associated with higher risk of MACE. Adequate sleep duration was not enough to offset these negative effects in irregular sleepers.
Irregular sleep promotes atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis corresponds to the deposition of atherosclerotic plaques made up of fat on the walls of the arteries. This phenomenon leads to changes in the caliber of blood vessels. Recently, researchers conducted a multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis taking into account sleep duration and sleep regularity.
An irregular sleep schedule (difference of more than 90 minutes from one night to the next) was associated with a higher calcium load in the coronary arteries, compared to a regular sleep schedule (difference of less than 30 minutes from one night to the next).
These data highlight that irregular sleep can promote atherosclerosis and therefore cardiovascular accidents.
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