New research sheds light on sleep contributing to the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in the community
Sleep is a state of mind and body characterized by a decreased level of consciousness, decreased perception, and relaxation of muscles. Poor sleep is reported by about a third of adults in America as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)1 and is linked with motor vehicle accidents, decreased productivity at workplaces, errors, and injuries.
Not getting enough sleep is also associated with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, depression, etc. Poor sleep can also affect our cardiovascular status adversely over time. However, it is unknown how it affects this health overall.
Read: South Asians are at four times greater risk of heart disease (December 24, 2021)
Nearly 5.4 million South Asians live in the United States and they account for nearly a quarter of the world’s population. The South Asian community in the United States comprises individuals with ancestry from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.
This community also includes members from South Asian diaspora that comprise of past South Asians generations who originally settled in many areas around the world.
It is well known that South Asians throughout the world have been shown to have a disproportionately increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Clearly, there are life-style factors that contribute to this increased risk. However, little is known about sleep if this is contributing to the increased risk.
Dr Shivaraj Nagalli, a board-certified Internal Medicine physician and a fellow at American college of Physicians and a member at Sigma-Xi, a scientific research honor society, refers to a research study published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology2 recently.
They studied the effects of sleep duration, inflammation on cardiovascular deaths among a large US population using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2005 and 2010.
“In our research, we found that the participants who sleep for fewer than six hours and those who sleep more than seven hours had a higher risk of death due to heart attacks and strokes,” says Dr Nagalli.
“The participants with sleep duration between 6-7 hours had a lesser risk of cardiovascular deaths,” he notes. “Our study also discovered that the high risk of those events was attributed to higher levels of inflammation in participants with short and long sleep durations.”
“This is particularly significant as the Immunomodulators and medications that decrease inflammation may help in decreasing the risk of cardiovascular deaths in patients with impaired sleep.”
Various factors can lead to abnormal sleep behavior. Stress, longer screen time, chronic pain, lack of physical activity, medications, underlying medical conditions such as hyperactive thyroid, depression, sleep apnea, etc are some of the factors.
Following sleep hygiene is the first step in working towards getting good sleep.
Read: South Asians’ high risk of cardiovascular disease has been hidden by a lack of data (May 24, 2018)
Maintaining sleep diary, going to bed at the same time, and waking up at the same time is essential. Avoiding stimulants such as coffee, tea, energy drinks and refraining from using electronic devices which impart bright light during bedtime before sleep are needed.
References:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/index.html
2. Gupta, Kartik, Shivaraj Nagalli, Rajat Kalra, Rishab Gupta, Shazil Mahmood, Vardhmaan Jain, Wunan Zhou, Sumanth D. Prabhu, and Navkaranbir S. Bajaj. “Sleep duration, baseline cardiovascular risk, inflammation and incident cardiovascular mortality in ambulatory US Adults: National health and nutrition examination survey.” American journal of preventive cardiology 8 (2021): 100246.