- Poor sleep is associated with a shorter lifetime for heart health, according to a new study of over 300,000 people.
- The study suggests that people with sleep apnea are most at risk of poorer heart health in the future.
- In understanding how healthy a person’s sleep is, a range of factors should be considered, including fragmented sleep, overall sleep time, snoring, and other aspects of restorative rest.
A new study reports, for the first time, the effect of poor sleep on the longevity of a person’s cardiovascular health.
Researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia and the University of Southern Denmark analyzed the sleeping experiences and cardiovascular medical histories of 308,683 middle-aged adults.
The study found that sleep disorders are associated with a significant reduction in the number of years of cardiac, or heart, health a person experiences.
Included in the study were clinical sleep disorders such as insomnia and breathing-related disorders, as well as a range of other sleep-related issues, such as schedule/
The two most common breathing-related sleep disorders considered in the study were central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea.
The analysis revealed that breathing-related sleep disorders were linked to a shortening of a person’s heart-healthy lifespan by around 7 years.
The study appears in
For women, breathing-related sleep disorders were associated with a 7.32-year reduction in heart-healthy years, and 6.73 years for men.
People who slept poorly, according to the study’s definition, saw an average 2-year reduction in cardiac health.
The study explores the many types of sleep problems and their effect on heart health.
“Sleep is multidimensional and complex,” study co-author Prof. Emmanuel Stamatakis told Medical News Today.
“Our study suggests that it needs to be addressed holistically, and not to limit the discussion to, e.g., sleep duration…
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