Short and Long Sleep Durations Linked to Cardiovascular Disease

Previous studies have shown that both short and long sleep durations are related to increased likelihood of diabetes and hypertension, and some research has posited that the underlying mechanisms for the association between short sleep and cardiovascular disease may include sleep-related disturbances in endocrine and metabolic functions.  Anoop Shankar, from West Virginia University School of Medicine (West Virginia, USA), and colleagues analyzed data from  30,397 National Health Interview Survey adults, categorizing sleep duration and incidence of cardiovascular disease. With 8% of the subjects reporting that they slept five hours per day or less (including naps), the researchers found that their risk of any cardiovascular disease was more than two times higher than that of people who reported a daily sleep duration of seven hours.  The 9% of subjects who reported sleeping nine hours or more per day were also at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. Explaining that: “Compared with sleep duration of 7 hours, there was a positive association between both shorter and longer sleep durations and [cardiovascular disease] in a representative sample of US adults,” the team proposes that: “These results suggest that sleep duration may be an important marker of [cardiovascular disease].”