Bad night’s sleep ‘can triple your risk of heart failure’

11 years ago | Posted in: Health | 465 Views

People who suffer from insomnia are more likely to develop heart failure, scientists claim.

Being unable to drop off or sleeping badly has been linked with a three-fold higher risk of the serious heart problem.

Researchers followed 54,279 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 89 for more than 11 years and charted whether they suffered from three major symptoms of insomnia.

These were having trouble falling asleep, problems staying asleep and not feeling refreshed on waking in the morning. Those who reported suffering from all three were at considerably higher risk of heart failure than those who had none or just one or two.Researcher Dr Lars Laugsand, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said the study did not show that insomnia causes heart failure, only that there is a strong link between the two.

Heart failure occurs when damage to the heart leaves it too weak to pump blood efficiently round the body. It causes fatigue, breathlessness, increased heart rate and swollen ankles, and can lead to serious complications.

These were having trouble falling asleep, problems staying asleep and not feeling refreshed on waking in the morning. Those who reported suffering from all three were at considerably higher risk of heart failure than those who had none or just one or two.

Researcher Dr Lars Laugsand, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said the study did not show that insomnia causes heart failure, only that there is a strong link between the two.

Heart failure occurs when damage to the heart leaves it too weak to pump blood efficiently round the body. It causes fatigue, breathlessness, increased heart rate and swollen ankles, and can lead to serious complications.

Dr Laugsand said it was not clear what biological mechanism was involved, but sleeping problems could trigger stress responses that ‘negatively’ affected heart function.Dr Tim Chico, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Sheffield, said: ‘Studies like this raise interesting suggestions that need further work to examine. Insomnia is a very unpleasant condition, but there are effective lifestyle changes that can reduce it, such as weight loss and exercise. 

‘Luckily, many of the things that reduce the chance of heart failure also reduce insomnia; good diet, exercise, weight loss and not smoking.’

Professor Emeritus Alun Evans, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University of Belfast, said ‘This huge, well-conducted prospective study demonstrates a very significant association between the number of symptoms of poor sleep at baseline and the development of heart failure a decade later.

‘Could this association be casual? Links between sleep disturbances/deprivation and childhood overweight and learning impairment, and adult obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and cognitive dysfunction have been reported previously.

‘An entirely separate intervention study has recently shown that sleep deprivation affects the expression of several hundred of our genes. These findings could point to causal mechanisms.
source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk

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