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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 2019 WWW. UNWLA .ORG 3 3 Sleep a nd Heart Disease Important Info on Strange Bedfellows by Ihor Magun, MD, FACP T he beginning of health is sleep . – Irish proverb Even though our contemporary s ociety literally runs twenty - four hours a day, seven days a week , 52 weeks a year, i t is a well - known fact that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish all the tasks we want or need to do . Work and family responsibilities cons ume a significant portion of our time. When unexpected issues arise, t he only way to find “additional time” to deal with them is to shorten sleeping time. A fter all, we can catch up on sleep the next day , right? And if not, we still manage to function norm ally on whatever shuteye we actually get. But is this enough? Everyone is at least somewhat aware of what the expression “heart healthy” means . The main in gredients are a healthy diet, adequate exer- cise, blood pressure control, proper weight, no smoking, limiting alcohol intake and managing stress. But one additional fact or that has not been emphasized enough is adequate sleep. It is now widely recognized th at too little sleep has been as- sociated with increased risk for coronary heart dis- ease, especially i n women. A corollary to this is that h eart disease is the leading cause of death in women . Moreover, fewer women than men survive their first heart attack. These simple facts empha- size the importance of sleep for everyone and women in particular . Sleep is a vital activity. Statistics from rec- orded data (in healthy adult individuals with no underlying sleep disorders) have shown that most individuals only manage to sleep five to six hours per night. Decreased sleep time ( defined as less than seven hours ) or excessive sleep time ( defined as more than nine hours ) has negative cardiac con- sequences. In a recent study, Harvard University tracked the sleepi ng times of women between the ages of 45 and 65. The women participating in this study did not have any card iovascular disease , but the results are telling: Women who slept fewer than five hours per night were nearly 40 percent more likely to suffer a card iac ailment than women who allotted eight hours for sleep. * So how can a lack of adequate sleep time lead to cardiac disease? Several factors are involved. For one thing, human body functions have an internal clock referred to as “ circadian rhythm. ” This i nternal clock helps en- sure that c ertain functions are performed during various times of the day and night. B y maintaining a regular sleep schedule, the body is able to main- tain the correct balance of hormones, blood pres- sure, repair mechanisms and other fa ctors that support good health . Insufficient sleep disrupts this balance, and d ocumented issues seen in indi- viduals with insufficient sleep time include the fol- lowing : Increase in insulin resistance, which is a risk fac- tor for development of diabetes . During normal sleep, blood pressure is lower, placing less strain on the heart ; insufficient sleep translat es to blood pressure remaining higher for longer periods of time . Decreased sleep affects the part of the brain that controls hunger ; this leads t o weight gain , which places added stress on the blood vessels and heart . Narrowing of the inside lining of the blood ves- sels can occur due to low - grade inflammation , which produces an increase in C - reactive protein — a nother risk factor for heart disease . Lack of sleep can lead to daytime fatigue that may result in avoidance of exercise . If you have issues w ith sleep, deal with it. S peak with your physician and k eep regular sleep- ing hours, seven days a week. Make sure you r bed- room is your haven for slumber — cool temperature and dark ness . Make a commitment to d evoting at least seven hours to sleep and stick to it. Just mak- ing this commitment should make you sleep better because , after all, you will have one less thing to wor ry about. ______ * The Harvard study cited here also found that women who slept longer than nine hours had a 37 percent risk of heart disea se, indicating that too much sleep (like too much of anything) is also something to avoid.
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