It is important for health not only how much we sleep, but also how much time we sleep

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Healthy sleep is related to your overall health and well-being. When it comes to healthy sleep, we mean its duration (number of hours of sleep per day), sleep continuity, ease of falling asleep and waking up. In addition, it is important to sleep time, hours, depth and quality of sleep. The latter is a subjective feeling, we ourselves feel whether we slept well or badly, while other parameters of sleep can be measured using different techniques.

It has long been known that disturbed sleep increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Diseases of the circulatory system are among the most common causes of death in the world. Each year, about 18.6 million people die from various heart diseases. Known risk factors include nadci¶nienieAnd diabeticAnd oty³o¶æsmoking tobacco High cholesterol. Its impact on cardiovascular health can be minimized through lifestyle changes that physicians constantly encourage. In this context, it is also important to pay attention to the quality of sleep.

Scientists from the University of Exeter (Great Britain) took a closer look at this issue and published their results in the “European Heart Journal – Digital Health” (Journal of the European Society of Cardiology).

The key to heart health – it’s time to sleep

Research on the relationship between sleep and the risk of cardiovascular disease is based in most cases on questionnaires or so-called diaries. The researchers have now used a different method that allows different measurements of sleep parameters to be measured independently. They used the accelerometers that the volunteers wore on their wrists. The accelerometer is a kind of sensor that is sensitive to each change of position. We can find it, for example, in a smartwatch and a sports strap, and medicine also uses the capabilities of the accelerometer.

The scientists used the database provided by the UK Biobank, which collected data from accelerometers used by more than 103,000 people. Persons. The duration of the study was seven days and the mean age was 61 years. Then, for more than five years, observations were made. During this time, there were 3,172 cases of heart disease among the study participants.

The analyzed data allowed the researchers to assess whether there was a relationship between sleep time and the risk of heart disease (Cox proportional hazards models – a type of statistical analysis) that was used for this purpose. The volunteers’ age and gender, smoking, body mass index, cholesterol level, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, and stated chronotype (early bird or night owl) were also considered.

It turns out that sleeping between 10.00 pm and 10.59 pm is best for our heart. On the other hand, people who slept after midnight suffer from cardiovascular diseases more often. People who slept in the middle of the night or later got 25 percent. The risk of cardiovascular disease is higher for people who sleep between 10 pm and 10.59 pm. Moreover, the relationship between sleep clock and cardiovascular disease was more clearly observed in women.

“Our findings suggest a possible link between sleep time and cardiovascular disease risk, especially in women,” the researchers concluded.

This study shows that the optimal time to sleep is a fixed point in a 24-hour cycle and that variations can be detrimental to your health. Sleeping after midnight is most at risk, says David Blanes, co-author of the study, possibly because it makes it more difficult to reset the circadian clock.

Shrodza: MedicalXPress.comAnd European Heart Journal – Digital Health