Irregular sleep may increase risk of serious cardiovascular events

Irregular sleep-wake cycles are associated with an increased risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke, even for people who adhere to the recommended bedtime each night, a study published online shows. This was revealed in the research results. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Most studies examining the effects of sleep on health have focused on sleep length, and less is known about the effects of sleep patterns, particularly irregular sleep defined as variations in sleep onset and wake times. It has not been done.

To investigate this further, researchers looked at 72,269 people aged 40 to 79 who took part in the UK Biobank study, some of whom had a history of major cardiovascular events. There was no one there.

They wore activity trackers for seven days to record their sleep, and that data was used to calculate each person's Sleep Regularity Index (SRI) score.

People with an SRI score of 87 or higher were considered to have a regular sleep pattern, and people with an SRI score of less than 72 were classified as having an irregular sleep pattern. Those with scores within this range were considered to have moderately irregular sleep.

The number of cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes over the next eight years was collected from death registries and hospital records and was used to calculate the risk of these events for each sleep pattern group.

Considers a variety of factors that can influence your age, physical activity level, discretionary screen time, fruit, vegetable, and coffee intake, alcohol intake, smoking, mental health issues, medication use, shift work, and more As a result, 26 people had irregular sleep. % more likely to have a major cardiovascular event than those with regular sleep-wake cycles, and those with moderately irregular sleep were 8% more likely.

A more detailed analysis of the data showed that the relationship between decreasing SRI scores and increasing risk of events was approximately linear, with higher (better) SRI scores associated with sharper decreases in risk. .

The recommended amount of nightly sleep is 7 to 9 hours for ages 18 to 64 and 7 to 8 hours for ages 65 and older. Regular sleepers were more likely to meet their recommended amount of sleep than irregular sleepers: 61% vs. 48%.

However, when considering the impact of achieving recommended sleep quotas, the risk of serious cardiovascular events was not offset by irregular sleepers who achieved this, even though they were moderately irregular sleepers.

Because this is an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect, and the researchers acknowledge that there is a wide range of copycats to their findings.

Although the sample size of this study was large, the UK Biobank may not accurately reflect the UK population. Sleep patterns were also assessed for only 1 week. The activity tracker did not distinguish between quiet wakefulness and sleep, and the sleep algorithm used to calculate the SRI score did not account for naps, only the longest sleep duration.

However, researchers believe that the findings suggest that irregular sleep is strongly associated with the risk of serious adverse cardiovascular events in adults, regardless of whether recommended sleep quotas are met. It is concluded that it does.

“More importantly, our results suggest that sleep regularity may be more important than sufficient sleep duration in regulating MACE.” [major adverse cardiovascular event] There are risks,” they say.

They added, “The results of this study suggest that sleep regularity requires more attention in public health guidelines and clinical practice because of its potential role in cardiovascular health.” Ta.