Risk Of Heart Diseases Increases With Poor Quality And Quantity Of Sleep

Poor sleep habits may put you at higher risk for heart diseases when compared to those who get around seven hours of good quality sleep every night, a study says. Sleeping too much or too little may lead to hardening of arteries which can be an early sign of heart disease. "Inadequate sleep is a common problem and a likely source of poor health, including visible signs of disease, such as heart attack," said study co-lead author Chan-Won Kim from Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea.

47,000 young and middle-aged adults took part in the study and completed a sleep questionnaire, underwent advanced tests to detect early coronary artery lesions and measure arterial stiffness. Presence of calcium in the coronary arteries was an early sign of coronary heart disease.

Sleep patterns of the adults who took part in the study revealed that adults who slept five or fewer hours a day had 50 percent more calcium in their coronary arteries than those who slept seven hours a day.

Researchers were able to identify an association between poor sleep quality and the presence of calcium in the arteries. Adults with less sleep had more than 20 percent more coronary calcium than those who had 7-8 hours of sleep. The arteries of adults with poor sleep quality were stiffer than those who had a better sleep quality.

"We also observed a similar pattern when we measured arterial stiffness," study co-lead author Yoosoo Chang, associate professor at Kangbuk Samsun Hospital in South Korea, said.

The study was published in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

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Source: Medindia