Do you know the best time to sleep to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease? Details are provided within
After all, the proverb “early to bed, early to rise…” appears to be true. Sleeping between 10 and 11 p.m. was discovered by researchers to be associated with excellent cardiovascular health. It was published in the European Heart Journal in a study titled ‘Accelerometer-derived sleep onset timing and cardiovascular disease incidence: a UK Biobank cohort study.’ 88,026 people’s onsite sleep times (SOTs) and waking times were collected for the study over the course of seven days. Their cardiovascular health was then monitored for a period of seven years. As many as 3,172 of the people eventually developed cardiac problems.
The SOTs were measured with an accelerometer, which is a wristwatch-like device that the subjects agreed to wear. SOTs before 10 p.m. and after 11 p.m. have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly in women. Participants who had SOTs after midnight had the highest incidence of CVD.
Previous research has linked sleep health to other CVD concerns such as hypertension and obesity, but this is one of the few studies that focuses on circadian rhythm and its implications for heart health.
Though the study focused primarily on data from the White British population, comparable studies may help understand the CVD burden among South Asians, who die from heart disease at a younger age. According to the Indian Heart Association, the rate of heart disease among Indians and South Asians is double that of national averages in the Western world.
This could be due to an underlying genetic susceptibility to metabolic dysregulation and cardiomyopathy, as well as a recent shift toward a higher intake of red meats, saturated fats, trans fats, and junk foods, as well as increased stress in sedentary lives.
The recent cardiac arrest deaths of Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar, cricketer Avi Barot, and TV actor Siddharth Shukla have highlighted the need for a better understanding of cardiac health.
