What is the best time to sleep for a better heart health?
According to a study, sleeping between 10–11 p.m. is
related with a lower risk of getting cardiovascular disease (CVD) or heart disease than sleeping sooner or later, implying that this is the best time to
sleep for better heart health.
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| Image: Woman Sleeping | InStyleHealth |
While there have been numerous studies on the
relationship between sleep duration and CVD, there are few studies on the
relationship between sleep timing and CVD.
According to researchers that the body has a 24-hour
internal clock called circadian rhythm, that helps regulate physical and mental
performance.
Furthermore, research shows that the best time to sleep
is at a precise moment in the body’s 24-hour cycle, and the variations can be
harmful to health. After midnight was the riskiest time, possibly because it
reduces the possibility of seeing morning light, which resets the biological
clock.
Incidence CVD was observed in 3,172 participants (3.6
percent) throughout a 5.7-year follow-up period, with the highest incidence in
those who slept after midnight and the lowest incidence in those who slept
between 10:00 and 10:59 pm.
After controlling for potential confounding factors
such as age, gender, sleep duration, sleep irregularity, BMI, and established CVD
risk factors, those who slept at midnight or later were 25% more likely to
develop CVD (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.25; p=0.03) than those who slept
between 10:00 and 10:59 pm.
Individuals who slept before 10:00 p.m. or between
11:00 and 11:59 p.m., respectively, had a 24 percent (HR, 1.24; p0.005) and 12
percent (HR, 1.12; p=0.04) higher CVD risk than those who slept between 10:00
and 10:59 p.m.
When the study was stratified by gender, the
researchers discovered that the link between sleep schedule and CVD risk was
higher in women than in males.
The possible reasons for the larger relationship identified in women, however, remain unknown.
Researchers stated that it’s possible that how the
endocrine system reacts to a disruption in circadian rhythm differs by gender.
Alternatively, since women’s cardiovascular risk increases after menopause, the
older age of research participants could be a confounding factor, suggesting there
may be no difference in the strength of the link between men and women.
Unlike prior research that relied on subjective
assessments based on participant recall or self-reported data, the current
study used an accelerometer to record objective sleep timing data.
Over the course of seven days, data on sleep onset and
waking up time were obtained from 88,026 participants in the UK Biobank (mean
age 61.43 years, 57.9% female). They were tracked for myocardial infarction,
chronic ischemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and transient ischemic
attack (TIA).
Furthermore, researchers noted that while research
cannot prove causation, sleep characteristics. Sleep time and basic sleep
hygiene could be a low-cost public health goal for lowering heart disease risk
if the outcomes are verified in other studies.
Source: [Eur Heart J Digit Health 2021;doi:10.1093/ehjdh/ztab088]