A study recently published in Scientific Reports found that poor sleep quality may be detrimental to heart health, increasing the risk of heart disease by 141%.
The study reviewed sleep data from 6,820 U.S. adults with an average age of 53 who self-reported personal sleep characteristics and a history of heart disease.
Of the participants, 633 wore a research device (actigraph) on their wrist to capture sleep activity.
The researchers looked at multiple aspects of sleep health, such as regularity, satisfaction, waking alertness, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and sleep duration, and linked them to doctor-diagnosed heart disease.
Researchers found that each increase in self-reported sleep health problems was associated with a 54 percent higher risk of heart disease.
And among those who provided sleep data through self-reports and research devices, the increased risk of heart disease due to sleep health problems was much higher—a 141 percent increase in prevalence, a figure thought to be more precise.
“These findings suggest that understanding a person’s ‘sleep health problems’ is important for assessing heart disease risk. This study is the first to show that in middle-aged people, more sleep health problems may increase the risk of risk of heart disease,” said Soomi Lee, first author of the study and assistant professor in the USF School of Aging Research. Health is important in preventing heart disease.”
The research team asked participants about their health, including whether doctors confirmed they had heart problems such as arrhythmias, heart murmurs or enlarged hearts. High blood pressure was flagged as a risk factor for heart disease.
They also looked at participants’ family history of heart disease and sociodemographic factors such as race, gender, smoking history, depression and physical activity.
The researchers found that while women reported more sleep health problems, men were more likely to suffer from heart disease, although gender did not affect the overall correlation between the two factors.
They also found that black participants had more sleep health problems and higher rates of heart disease than white participants, but the strong link between sleep health and heart disease did not change by race overall. .
Lee said that while sleep health is important for people of all ages, the team focused on midlife because it is longer and because of work and family roles, middle-aged Life experiences are diverse and stressful.
This stage is also when heart disease and age-related sleep problems begin to appear.
Since sleep health can improve, the findings could help develop preventive strategies to reduce heart disease risk, researchers say.