Published on 09.11.2019
SHADWAL WEB DESK: People who have trouble sleeping may be more likely to have a stroke, heart attack or other cerebrovascular or cardiovascular diseases, according to a study published in the November 6, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved more than 487,000 people with an average age of 51 who had no history of stroke or heart disease.
Participants were asked if they had any of three symptoms of insomnia at least three days per week: trouble falling asleep or staying asleep; waking up too early in the morning; or trouble staying focused during the day due to poor sleep.
They were then followed for an average of about 10 years during which there were 130,032 cases of stroke, heart attack and other similar diseases.
People who had all three symptoms of insomnia were 18 per cent more likely to develop the diseases than people who did not have any symptoms, according to the findings published by the journal. Study author Dr Liming Li, of Beijing University, said: “These results suggest that if we can target people who are having trouble sleeping with behavioural therapies, it’s possible that we could reduce the number of cases of stroke, heart attack and other diseases later down the line.”
People who had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep were nine per cent more likely to suffer a stroke or heart disease than people who did not have those problems.
And those who woke up too early and could not get back to sleep were seven per cent more likely to develop such diseases.
Those who said they had trouble staying focused during the day due to poor sleep were 13 per cent more likely to go onto suffer a heart attack or stroke than those without the symptom.
The study was observational, meaning it did not prove that insomnia caused the increased risk of stroke and heart disease, but showed a link between poor sleep and the diseases.
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