In old age, people tend to experience disrupted nightly sleep and clogged arteries. Although these two disorders may seem unrelated, new research by the University of California, Berkeley, has explained their relationship. They said that the two diseases are pathologically intertwined.
The university's sleep scientists revealed how the fragmentation of nightly sleep could lead to atherosclerosis or the fatty arterial plaque buildup, which can result in a fatal cardiovascular disorder.
Study senior author, Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience, said, "we've discovered that fragmented sleep is associated with a unique pathway -- chronic circulating inflammation throughout the bloodstream -- which, in turn, is linked to higher amounts of plaques in coronary arteries."
Additional Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease
According to News Wise, the researchers add disruption of sleep as a critical risk factor for cardiovascular disease according to their published study on June 4 in the journal PLOS Biology.
In the United States, cardiovascular diseases rank number one as a killer among Americans, with some 12,000 deaths a week reported. COVID-19 comes close, on average, which has killed 1,000 people per day during the pandemic.
Research lead author Raphael Vallat, a postdoctoral researcher in Walker's Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley, said that these data are the first to associate sleep fragmentation, inflammation, and atherosclerosis in humans.
Meaning, fragmentation of sleep now adds to the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in humans, which initially include a poor diet, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking.
The researchers used statistical modeling to analyze the diagnostic data of more than 1,600 middle-aged and older adults nationwide. They made sure to identify factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, body mass index, sleep disorders, blood pressure, and high-risk behaviors that could affect the study results.
To track their results, the scientists analyzed the participants' blood tests, calcium scores, as well as several different measures of sleep - wristwatch-assessed sleep across a week and a night in a sleep laboratory that measured electrical brainwave signals.
Their results clearly linked disrupted sleep patterns to higher concentrations of white blood cells known as monocytes and neutrophils, playing an essential role in developing atherosclerosis.
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Paying Attention to Sleep Hygiene
According to the researchers, the study results have significant public health implications as atherosclerosis often begins in early adulthood. The plaque buildup within arteries is largely unnoticed until middle or old age when suddenly the plaques will block arterial blood flow to the heart, lungs, and brain. This is why atherosclerosis is called the 'silent killer.'
Moreover, study co-lead author Vyoma Shah, a doctoral student in Walker's lab, the insidious nature of the disease requires people in their early to middle age to pay close attention to their sleep hygiene.
News Wise has outlined some tips to improve sleep quality. These include maintaining a regular sleep routine, putting phones and other digital devices out of the bedroom before sleeping, engaging in some physical activities, getting exposure to sunlight, and avoiding stimulants.
For a more severe case, a person could consider getting sleep apnea and consulting the doctor for any signs of insomnia and what could be done to solve it.
