Sleeping Disorder May Double Risk of Heart Attack

Poor sleep could increase an individual’s risk of heart attack and stroke, and should be considered a cardiovascular risk factor in prevention guidelines, according to a new study.

In order to determine whether lack of sleep was associated with cardiovascular risk, researchers conducted a study of 657 Russian men between 25 and 64 years old.
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Researchers used the Jenkins Sleep Scale to classify the participants’ sleep into several categories. Those men whose sleep was categorized as poor, bad, or very bad were considered to have a sleep disorder.

Over 14 years of follow-up, the researchers assessed the incidence of heart attack and stroke among the men.

Overall, men who had a sleeping disorder were 2-2.6 times more at risk of heart attack and 1.5-5 times more at risk for stroke than those who did not have a sleeping disorder.

Risk was highest among those who were widowed or divorced, those whose jobs involved manual labor, and those who had not completed high school.

“Sleep is not a trivial issue…Poor sleep should be considered a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease along with smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet,” they concluded.

“Guidelines should add sleep as a risk factor to recommendations for preventing cardiovascular disease.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:
European Society of Cardiology. Poor sleep associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke [press release]. http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=153625&CultureCode=en. Accessed June 15, 2015.