Less sleep, higher risk for heart disease in women: study
AUSTIN, Texas - Women who get less than seven hours of sleep at night increase their risk of heart disease by 75 percent as they age, according to a new study.
The study, published in the journal Circulation, looked at nearly 3,000 women between the ages of 42 and 52 over a 20-year period. Women who sleep less than five hours have the highest risk for heart attack and stroke, and that's after adjusting for other risk factors.
The new findings suggest long term sleep issues and heart disease are closely linked, and underscore the need to improve heart disease prevention efforts in women as it is for men.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women in the U.S.
MORE HEALTHBEAT
- Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos can be considered children
- Heart disease is leading cause of death in men, women in Texas
- Georgetown man beats odds after diagnosis decades ago
"The takeaway message is to really focus on allowing ourselves 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night," said Dr. Vivek Goswami, a cardiologist with Austin Heart and Heart Hospital of Austin. "So if we go to bed at 11 with plans to wake up at 5:00, we've already put ourselves in a disadvantage. We've known for quite some time that patients that don't get enough sleep oftentimes have higher incidence of high blood pressure. They have a higher incidence of inflammation, insulin resistance, which could lead to diabetes."
Dr. Goswami says there are many things you can do to improve both the duration and quality of sleep, such as:
- Avoid alcohol and caffeine at night
- Don't drink a lot of fluids right before bed
- Put screens away well before bedtime
- Make your room dark and quiet
- Establish a routine
- Try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning