Getting enough sleep is crucial for general health, but a recent study suggests that getting too little sleep may have serious consequences for your heart. According to experts, those with insomnia will likely suffer a heart attack.
Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders
According to the researchers’ findings, insomnia remains the most prevalent sleep condition in the US, affecting 10% to 15% of the population. A meta-analysis of already published studies reveals that women may be more likely than men to get heart attacks.
Director of Prevention at Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute Dr Martha Gulati, said that the majority of her patients were women and insomnia is a risk factor for those with any kind of ischemic heart problem. Insomnia is common, affecting one in every ten patients in the US.
For the analysis, researchers categorized insomnia as a sleep disorder where one has a problem falling asleep, staying asleep or waking early and cannot get back to sleep. The meta-analysis included data from 1,184,256 individuals across the US, the UK, Germany, China, Taiwan, and Norway. Around 153,881 individuals had insomnia, and 1,030,375 didn’t.
According to the study, the odds of having a heart attack were 1.69 times higher for those with insomnia than those without it. However, heart attacks still happened in only 1.6% of persons with sleeplessness and 1.2% among those without.
There is a link between night’s sleep and the risk of heart attack
The research additionally found a link between a subject’s nightly sleep duration and a higher risk of a heart attack. The strongest correlation between sleep duration and risk of heart attack was found in persons who slept 5 hours or less; they were 1.56 times as likely to get a heart attack compared to those who slept 7-8 hours.
The amount of time spent sleeping wasn’t far more protective. According to the study, a heart attack was less likely to occur in persons who slept 6 hours or less per night compared to those who slept 9 hours or more.
