Sleep Deprivation and Your Heart

If you want to keep your heart healthy be sure to get enough sleep at night, about 6 to 8 hours if possible.  A study in Spain of 4,000 people showed that the less sleep or if your sleep is interrupted through the night you run a higher risk of heart disease.  The study was on people around 46 years old and didn’t have any heart problems.  They were supervised for 7 nights with a small device that measured their length and quality of sleep.  Before the study started they were given CT scans and 3D ultrasounds that showed their heart and arteries functions at the start and then at the finish of the study.  The study showed that 27% of the people who slept less than 6 hours were at higher risk of heart disease.  It also showed that 34% of the people who were not able to get to sleep right away or were up often during the night were also at risk.

The reason for this is not very clear, but not getting enough sleep is detrimental to your heart health.  Disruptions in your biological processes like glucose metabolism, blood pressure, and inflammation are some causes of heart problems.  The same is true if you oversleep also.  Sleep apnea will cause this to disrupt your sleep pattern and cause cardiovascular problems.

Research has shown that if a person when they were adolescents didn’t get the sleep that they needed may also cause cardiovascular problems in their adult life.

Be sure to get the sleep that you need to avoid any health problems at your later ages.