How sleep increases the risk for atherosclerosis

There seems to be a connection between disturbed sleep and clogged arteries in old age. With other words: interruptions of nightly sleep arterial calcification (atherosclerosis), which in turn will increase diseases the risk for fatal heart promote.

In the case of a current investigation under the direction of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, it was found that disturbed sleep is with atherosclerosis and the risk for heart disease increases. The results of the study were published in the English scientific journal “PLOS Biology”.

Data from more than 1,600 people were evaluated

With the help of statistical models, the research group analyzed the diagnostic data of more than 1,600 adults in middle and advanced age on the basis of a national data set. In order to isolate the influence of sleep quality on cardiovascular health, in addition, a number of different factors, such as age, ethnicity, gender, Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, and high-risk, such as Smoking into account.

Participants were studied in a sleep laboratory

The researchers, the results of the Participants analyzed and evaluated the results of their blood tests, their calcium values, as well as several different sleep measurements. So it was recorded with a wrist watch (Smartwatch) of sleep over a period of a week, and during a night in a sleep lab, the brain electric power measured signals.

Favor disturbed sleep pattern inflammation?

The final result showed a clear connection between disturbed sleep patterns and higher concentrations of circulating inflammatory factors. This is especially true for the white blood cells, as monocytes and neutrophils are known and a key role in atherosclerosis play.

Similar results in mice found

“In fact, this Association results reflect in humans, the most recent data, in which experimentally-induced sleep disturbances in mice to higher values of inflammation circulating led, which caused the rodents atherosclerotic lesions,” says study author Professor Matthew Walker from the University of California, Berkeley, in a press release.

Development of atherosclerosis goes unnoticed for a long time

The results show a connection between poor sleep and atherosclerosis via the chronic inflammation, have a major impact on public health. For example, atherosclerosis begins often in early adulthood. This process goes largely unnoticed, until the plaque accumulation in the middle or old age, suddenly blocked the arterial blood flow to the heart, to the lungs, to the brain or to other organs, explains Professor Vallat.

Take Control Of Your Sleep Hygiene

The current study results indicate that people should pay attention to your sleep hygiene, right from the early-to-middle age. To be able to the quality of sleep more accurately assess, recommend to the researchers, the use of so-called sleep trackers, clinical grade, because the study had not shown that the subjective assessment of sleep by people is reliable.

Sleep habits can be changed

“If you track your sleep habits with objective measurements, as they measure your weight, your blood pressure or your cholesterol level, you can change your sleeping habits, which could have a significant effect on health in later life”, stresses the author of the Study Vyoma Shah.

Disturbed sleep could also have other serious effects

The established connection between sleep disorders and chronic inflammation may not be limited to just heart disease, but could also include mental health and neurological disorders such as severe depression and Alzheimer’s disease, explain the researchers. This makes further studies necessary.

Poor sleep as a major risk factor for heart disease

It turned out during the investigation that sleep disorders with a unique signal path (a chronic circulating inflammation throughout the circulatory system) are connected. Such inflammation in the blood circulation, in turn, is associated with a higher number of Plaques in the coronary arteries. Poor sleep should be considered therefore, according to the researchers, as one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. (as)

Authors and source of information

This Text meets the requirements of the medical literature, medical guidelines, as well as current studies and was examined by doctors and Medical scientists.