Doctors called sleep disorders a key risk factor for heart disease

Poor sleep quality may be an underestimated cause of cardiovascular disease. This was reported on July 22 in the journal Medscape with reference to the opinion of doctors.

"It has long been known that lack of sleep is associated with coronary heart disease," says Marta Gulati, MD, director of the Department of Preventive Cardiology at the Smiths Heart Institute at Cedars—Sinai in Los Angeles.

She noted that maintaining a sleep norm within 7-9 hours is associated with improved blood pressure, normalization of cholesterol levels and stable weight. But, according to Gulati, the number of hours of sleep is only a small part. Consistency and preferred time (sleep chronotype) are also important.

In a 2023 study conducted in the UK, people who considered themselves "owls" (the chronotype of evening sleep) showed signs of potentially dangerous remodeling of the heart compared to people who considered themselves "larks". In a study on adolescents, shorter sleep was associated with abnormalities in the structure of the left ventricle and an increase in fat in the liver. Another study showed that irregular sleep patterns are associated with a greater calcium load on the coronary arteries.

Marie-Pierre Saint-Onge, PhD, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Research at Columbia University in New York, explained that "excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality." At the same time, "sleep disorders are associated with hypertension, arterial rigidity and coronary heart disease."

According to the expert, sleep restriction increases oxidative stress in the artery wall, which can lead to endothelial dysfunction. In addition, lack of sleep also reduces the body's ability to withstand this oxidative stress.

Saint-Onge also stressed that insufficient duration and poor quality of sleep can weaken the immune system. Despite the lack of official clinical recommendations, the expert considers it important to discuss the quality of sleep with patients — this allows you to identify possible problems, such as difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings or feeling tired even after a long sleep.

Maxim Novikov, a somnologist at JSC "Medicine" (Academician Roitberg Clinic), said on July 11 that poor sleep interferes with weight control due to hormonal imbalance, increased cravings for sweets, less energy, slower metabolism and stress. According to him, sleep directly affects the production of hormones that are responsible for hunger and satiety.

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