A new study finds a link between adequate sleep, earlier bedtimes and heart-healthy behavior. Credit: University of Delaware/Jeffrey C. Chase
Study connects Early Bedtime and ‘Adequate’ sleep with Heart Healthy choices. Early-to-bed, early-to-rise approach aligns much better with cardiovascular health. Sleep deficits and poor-quality sleep have been linked to obesity and a myriad of health problems, but this study shows that when it comes to promoting healthy hearts, it’s not a matter of getting more sleep. It’s a matter of getting adequate sleep at optimal times. Doing that seems to reduce the kind of behaviors – smoking, sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices – that put hearts in harm’s way.
The study examined the duration and approximate timing of sleep to see what patterns might be linked to the 3 prime suspects of cardiovascular trouble – smoking, poor diet and sedentary habits. Those behaviors have been blamed for about 40% of cardiovascular deaths in the US and UK. It drew from the United Kingdom’s Biobank Resource and a sample of 439,933 adults, between the ages of 40-69.
The study defined short sleep as <6 h, adequate sleep as 7-8 h, and long sleep as 9+ h. Respondents were categorized by their self-reported sleep-timing or “chronotype” – whether they considered themselves a morning person, more morning than evening, more evening than morning, or an evening person. They were asked about their physical activity, how much time they spent using a computer or watching TV on an average day, how many servings of fruits and vegetables they had each day and how many cigarettes they typically smoked in an average day.
And the bottom line was this – those whose sleep was either short or long and the night owls who went to bed later were more likely than adequate sleepers and those who went to bed earlier to smoke, remain sedentary and eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Despite the enormous sample size, the data had some limitations, Patterson said. Population diversity was limited, for example. Ninety-five percent of respondents were white. And the data were largely based on self-report.
“These data suggest that it’s not just sleep deprivation that relates to cardiovascular risk behaviors, but too much sleep can relate as well,” Patterson said. “Oftentimes, health messages say we need to get more sleep, but this may be too simplistic. Going to bed earlier and getting adequate sleep was associated with better heart health behaviors.”
The American Health Association reports that only 5-10% of adults meet ideal standards in diet, physical activity and tobacco use. The rest of us have work to do. “We know that people who are active tend to have better sleep patterns, and we also know that people who do not get their sleep are less likely to be active,” Patterson said. Further study is required to determine whether promoting adequate sleep and earlier-to-bed patterns would improve heart health. http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2016/apr/sleep-cardiovascular-health-042116.html
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