Insomnia Hikes Heart Disease Risk
By Chauncey Crandall, M.D.
If you suffer from insomnia, you may have a higher risk of developing heart disease or suffering a stroke, a recent study shows.
It’s estimated that about 60 million Americans are affected by insomnia, which is defined as poor quality sleep due to difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night, or getting up too early. Previous research had found associations between insomnia and heart disease or stroke, but the results had been mixed.
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A research team in China analyzed 15 studies with a total of 160,867 participants. During a median follow-up of three to 29.6 years, there were 11,702 adverse events. They found that difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep were associated with 27%, 11%, and 18% higher risk of cardiovascular and stroke events, respectively.
Women with insomnia symptoms had a slightly higher risk of cardiovascular and stroke events than men, especially for nonrestorative sleep. But the difference between genders did not reach statistical significance.
Insomnia is not the only sleep disorder that can potentially raise the risk of heart disease. Sleep apnea, the common disorder that causes people to awaken, sometimes hundreds of times a night and often without awareness, is also proven to do so.