Sleep Well: Poor Sleep Ups Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

A good night’s sleep is of utmost importance when it comes to your well-being. Time and again we tend to neglect our need for proper sleep. Lack of sleep has long been associated with numerous health hazards including weight gain, diabetes and brain damage. It is also believed to accelerate the ageing process and adversely affect your skin and hair.

A recent research points out that losing as little as half an hour of sleep per day on weekdays can affect your body weight and metabolism. Another study emphasises on the link between food cravings and sleep deprivation. According to the researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, high-calorie foods become significantly more desirable when people are sleep-deprived. Most give into temptation which then triggers significant weight gain as well as obesity.

Sleep troubles or disturbed sleep is also seen to have strong association with memory–related issues. A study explained that while we are asleep, processes that repair and restore the brain are activated. If our sleep is disrupted, these processes are also interrupted which may lead to a greater decline in brain volume. If these reasons aren’t enough for you to catch up on sleep, we urge you to sleep for the sake of your heart. When it comes to your heart’s health, a bad night's sleep could be as bad as smoking. Researchers have found that sleep disturbances may double the risk of heart attack and stroke in men.

"Sleep is not a trivial issue. In our study it was associated with double the risk of a heart attack and up to four times the risk of stroke," said Professor Valery Gafarov of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"Poor sleep should be considered a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease along with smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet. Guidelines should add sleep as a risk factor to recommendations for preventing cardiovascular disease."

The research was part of the WHO programme "MONICA" (multinational monitoring of trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease) and the "MONICA-psychosocial" sub study.  The study included a representative sample of 657 men aged 25 to 64 years with no history of heart attack, stroke or diabetes in Novosibirsk, Russia. Sleep quality was assessed when the study began in 1994. Cases of myocardial infarction and stroke were recorded over the next 14 years.

During the study period, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of participants who suffered from heart attack also had sleeping disorders. Men with sleeping disorders had a risk of myocardial infarction that was two to 2.6 times higher and a stroke risk that was 1.5 to four times higher than those without a sleeping disorder between five and 14 years of follow up.