Chennai: Time and again, enough stress has been laid on the importance of good sleeping habits.
Now, yet another research has concluded that sleep quality plays a key role in maintaining a healthy heart.
A study published in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation, has stated that adults with the healthiest sleep patterns had a 42 per cent lower risk of heart failure regardless of other risk factors compared to adults with unhealthy sleep patterns.
Healthy sleep patterns are rising in the morning, sleeping seven-eight hours a day and having no frequent insomnia, snoring or excessive daytime sleepiness. Heart failure affects more than 26 million people, and emerging evidence indicates sleep problems may play a role in the development of heart failure.
This observational study examined the relationship between healthy sleep patterns and heart failure and included data on 408,802 UK Biobank participants, ages 37 to 73 at the time of recruitment (2006-2010). Incidence of heart failure was collected until 1 April, 2019. Researchers recorded 5,221 cases of heart failure during a median follow-up of 10 years.
Sleep duration, insomnia and snoring and other sleep-related features, such as whether the participant was an early bird or night owl and if they had any daytime sleepiness (likely to unintentionally doze off or fall asleep during the daytime), were considered to be the measures of sleep quality.
The healthy sleep score we created was based on the scoring of these five sleep behaviours, said Lu Qi, corresponding author and professor of epidemiology and director of the Obesity Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Sleep behaviours were collected through touchscreen questionnaires. Sleep duration was defined into three groups: short, or less than seven hours a day; recommended, or seven to eight hours a day; and prolonged, or nine hours or more a day.
The team found the risk of heart failure was independently associated and eight per cent lower in early risers, 12 per cent lower in those who slept 7-8 hours daily, 17 per cent lower in those who did not have frequent insomnia and 34 per cent lower in those reporting no daytime sleepiness.
After adjusting for diabetes, hypertension, medication use, genetic variations and other covariates, participants with the healthiest sleep pattern had a 42 per cent reduction in the risk of heart failure compared to people with an unhealthy sleep pattern.