Getting enough sleep may boost your heart and general health—and possibly how long you live, according to recent research being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in conjunction with the World Congress of Cardiology. According to the study, young people who get better sleep have a slightly lower risk of dying at an early age. Furthermore, statistics suggest that irregular sleeping habits may be the cause of about 8 percent of deaths from any cause.
“We saw a clear dose-response relationship, so the more beneficial factors someone had in terms of high quality of sleep, the more likely they also had a reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality,” says Frank Qian, MD, an internist. said Medicine Resident Physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Clinical Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study. “I think these findings emphasize that just getting enough hours of sleep isn’t enough. You really should be getting restful sleep and not having as much trouble falling and staying asleep.”
For their analysis, Qian and team included data from 172,321 people (average age 50 and 54 percent women) who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 2013 and 2018. This survey is done every year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics to help measure the health of the US population and includes questions about sleep and sleep habits. Qian said this is the first study to his knowledge to use a nationally representative population to look at how many sleep behaviors, and not just sleep duration, can affect life expectancy.
Nearly two-thirds of study participants reported being white, 14.5 percent Hispanic, 12.6 percent black, and 5.5 percent Asian. Because the researchers were able to link participants to national death index records (as of December 31, 2019), they were able to examine the association between individual and combined sleep factors and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Participants were followed for an average of 4.3 years, during which 8,681 people died. Of these deaths, 2,610 (30 percent) were from heart disease, 2,052 (24 percent) from cancer, and 4,019 (46 percent) from other causes.
The researchers assessed five different factors of quality sleep using a low-risk sleep score created based on answers collected as part of the survey. Factors include: 1) the ideal sleep duration of seven to eight hours a night; 2) difficulty sleeping more than twice a week; 3) trouble sleeping more than twice a week; 4) not using any sleeping pills; 5) Feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week. Each factor was given a score of zero or one each for a maximum of five points, indicating the highest quality of sleep. Qian said. “So, if we can improve sleep overall, and identifying sleep disorders that are particularly important, we may be able to prevent this premature mortality.”
For the analysis, the researchers controlled for other factors that may increase the risk of dying, including low socioeconomic status, smoking and alcohol consumption, and other medical conditions. Compared to individuals who had zero to one favorable sleep factor, those who had all five were 30 percent less likely to die from any cause, 21 percent less likely to die from heart disease, and 19 percent less likely to die from cancer. The percentage was less. and 40 percent less likely to die from causes other than heart disease or cancer. Qian said these other deaths were likely caused by accidents, infections or neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease, but more research is needed.
Among men and women who reported having all five quality sleep measures (a score of five), life expectancy was 4.7 years longer for men and 2.4 years longer for women, compared to those who had at least five of the following: There was none or only one of the favorable elements—risk sleep. More research is needed to determine why men with all five low-risk sleep factors had a twofold increase in life expectancy compared to women with similar quality of sleep. Getting enough sleep, making sure they’re sleeping without too many distractions and overall having good sleep hygiene can greatly benefit their overall long-term health,” said Qian, adding that for the current analysis, they looked at life predicted benefits in expectancy at age 30, but the model can be used to predict benefits at older ages as well.” It’s important for young people to understand that a lot of health behaviors are cumulative over time. Like we like to say, ‘It’s never too late to exercise or stop smoking,’ it’s also never too early. And we should be talking about this and assessing sleep more often.”
These sleep habits can be easily asked about during clinical encounters, and the researchers hope that patients and physicians will start talking about sleep as part of their overall health assessment and disease management plan. A limitation of the study is that sleep habits were self-reported and not objectively measured or verified. In addition, there was no information available about what type of sleep aid or medication was used or how often or for how long participants used them. Future research is needed to understand how these gains in life expectancy may continue as people age, as well as to explore the sex differences observed. Previous studies have shown that getting too little or too much sleep can have negative effects on the heart. It is also widely reported that sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes one to pause or stop breathing while sleeping, can lead to a number of heart conditions, including high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, and heart attacks.