I just read a recent article in the LA Times that provided a link between a lack of sleep and an increased risk of artery hardening. According to the article, over a 5 year study, 27% of people who slept less than 5 hours a night had coronary artery thickening. 12% of those who slept between 5 and 7 hours a night had hardening while only 6% of those who slept more than 7 hours per night had artery hardening.
Researchers aren’t sure as to the reason behind the correlation. However, they do speculate as to some possible reasons. First, your blood pressure is higher when you’re awake. If you spend more time awake than you should, then your average blood pressure may be high enough to cause some hardening of your arteries. Another possible reason may be due to stress. Stressed out people tend to sleep less, eat poorly, and exercise less. All of these things also contribute to artery hardening. Stress also increases blood pressure and levels of a hormone called cortisol which has been shown to cause similar effects.
Whether or not this study is repeated later–it was a very small study that definitely needs some more work–getting enough sleep is a very important aspect of being fit. Inadequate sleep has been linked to health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Health benefits aside, I like to get enough sleep for one simple reason. I like to sleep!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
i wonder if that’s hours-in-a-row or hours overall? It has been years since I slept more than four hours in a row without waking up at least once or twice but I have recently been able to up my overall night’s sleep to 7 hours or more. three things helped: no caffiene after noon; i had my thyroid levels checked and am now taking thyroid medication; and I retired — the lack of stress has been great (almost worth the lack of income!) and the end of the need to get up at a specific time means that if I do have a bad night’s sleep I can get an hour or so more in the morning…
I too wonder if that is hours-in-a-row, or not. As a brand new parent I can tell you that getting more than four or five hours of sleep in-a-row is impossible. Being that humans have been having kids since the beginning of our existents (and the reason we haven’t come to the end of that existents yet) you would think our bodies would naturally adapt to the sleeping patterns that come with being a parent.
And if the above makes no sense at all, I blame it on the same reason my arteries are hardening up…
Excuse me…I’m going back to bed.
It’s hard to get enough sleep as there are so many outside pressures. Ideally, I think you just sleep, (or have a nap), whenever you feel like it. No alarm clocks or phony schedules. However, in the real world, this is pretty hard to do.
- Dave