ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Poor sleep could triple risk for heart disease: U.S. study

(Ivan Oboleninov / pexels.com) (Ivan Oboleninov / pexels.com)
Share

A new study suggests that a combination of characteristics from poor sleep could triple a person's risk for heart disease.

While some people may experience one or two aspects of poor sleep, an American study published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that experiencing multiple poor sleep aspects could compound the health problems a person experiences as a result.

Researchers from the School of Aging at the University of South Florida focused on certain aspects of sleep health, including regularity, satisfaction, alertness during waking hours, timing of sleep and sleep duration.

Their findings suggest that with each additional poor health aspect self-reported by the participants in the study, there was an associated 54 per cent increase in their risk for heart disease. For selected participants who had their self-reported data confirmed by wearing a monitoring device that recorded their sleep activity, poor sleep was associated with a 141 per cent increase in risk.

The median age of the participants of the study was 53.4 years.

The study also noted previous research that suggests sex and race can impact one's sleep health. According to the data, men are generally more likely to develop an earlier onset of obstructive sleep apnea, while women are more likely to report insomnia symptoms due to hormone changes that impact circadian rhythms.

When it comes to race, researchers noted Black individuals are more likely to experience sleep disturbances and shorter sleep duration than their white counterparts.

"These findings show the importance of assessing co-existing sleep health problems within an individual to capture the risk of heart disease," the study's lead author, Soomi Lee, said in a press release.

One limitation of the study was that it did not track changes in sleep health and health over time, something researchers said is a "future direction of this work."

While the findings can be used as a prediction tool to spot early signs of heart disease, researchers say it can also be useful to help prevent health problems later in life.

"As sleep health is modifiable, understanding multidimensional sleep health in middle adulthood may contribute to future prevention strategies aimed to mitigate the risk of heart disease, which is a leading cause of death in the United States," researchers said in the study. 

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.