Health
Good sleep significantly reduces the risk of strokes and heart attacks. According to a study carried out in Switzerland, people with ideal sleep have a 63% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than people with sleep disorders.
October 20, 2023 12:35 pm
Online since today, 12:35 pm
A research team from the Swiss Cantonal Hospital of Lausanne (Chuv) and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) observed more than 15,000 people from France and Switzerland for up to ten years for the study.
At the start of the study and two to five years later, they calculated a healthy sleep score for all study participants, which combines five sleep behaviors. A total score of five points was given to those who slept seven to eight hours a night, never or rarely suffered from insomnia and did not suffer from sleep apnea or excessive tiredness during the day. The occurrence of heart attacks and strokes was then monitored for eight to ten years.
“Worry about sleep like you care about your body”
Compared to people with a healthy sleep score of zero or one, i.e. very poor sleep, people with two, three, four or five points had ten (for two points), 19 (for three points), 38 (for to four points) and 63 (five points) percent lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, which include strokes and heart attacks. The study has now been published in the “European Heart Journal”.
“These results encourage us to take care of our sleep, just as we take care of our bodies,” said study author Pedro Marques-Vidal, from Chuv, quoted in the hospital statement. “Short sleep is often associated with high productivity, but a person who sleeps well will reduce their stress and reduce their cardiovascular risk factors.”