New research recently published by Circulation, the American Heart Association's flagship journal, showed that adults who have the healthiest sleep patterns had a 42-percent lower risk of heart failure regardless of other factors than adults who have unhealthy sleep patterns.
The study also specified that healthy sleep patterns typically arise in the morning, sleeping from seven to eight hours each day and having no frequent attacks of insomnia, frequent snoring, and excessive sleepiness during daytime.
Reports on this condition impact over 26 million people, and evolving evidence specifies that sleep problems may play a role in the development and occurrence of heart failure.
Link Between Sleep Pattern and Heart Failure Investigated
This observational research investigated the link between healthy sleep patterns and heart failure. It comprised data on more than 400,000 UK Biobank participants whose ages range from 37 to 73 years at the time of recruitment between 2006 and 2010.
The occurrence of heart failure was collected until April 2019. Study authors were able to record more than 5,200 cases of heart failure during the 10-year median follow-up.
Researchers assessed sleep quality, as well as general sleep patterns. The gauges of sleep quality comprised sleep duration, insomnia, and snoring, as well as features associated with sleep.
Among these features include whether the study participant was considered a "night owl" or an "early bird," and if they experienced any sleepiness at daytime, likely to doze off or fall asleep during the day unintentionally.
Importance of Improving Overall Sleep Patterns Highlighted
According to the study's corresponding author and epidemiology professor and director of the Obesity Research Center at New Orleans-based Tulane University, Lu Qi MD, PhD, the healthy sleep score "we created was based on the scoring of these five sleep behaviors."
Their findings, the professor added, underscore the essentiality of improving overall sleep patterns to contribute to the prevention of heart failure.
Reports on the study said, sleep behaviors were collected by means of "touchscreen questionnaires." Duration of sleep was specifically defined into three different groups, including short or less than seven hours of sleep each day; recommended or between seven and eight hours of sleep each day; and prolonged or nine hours or longer sleep every day.
Following their adjustments for certain conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, use of medicine, and genetic variations, as well as other covariates, participants who had the healthiest sleep patter were found to have a 42-percent reduction in the risk of heart failure than to those who had an unhealthy sleep pattern.
Other Findings
Researchers also found that the risk of heart failure was independently linked and, eight-percent lower among early riser; 12-percent lower in people who had seven to eight hours of sleep each day; 17-percent lower in people who did not experience frequent insomnia; and 34-percent lower in people who said they did not experience daytime sleepiness.
Furthermore, as indicated in the study, the sleep behaviors of participants were self-reported, and the information on sleep-behavior changes during follow-up were unavailable.
The study authors noted other unmeasured or unidentified adjustments, which may have influenced the findings as well. Qi also noted that the strengths of their study comprise its originality, prospective study design, and enormous sample size.
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