CREMONA – Having irregular sleep habits promotes the development of atherosclerosis, a condition that can lead to stroke or heart attack, according to a study coordinated by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville (USA) and published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. It has long been known link between poor quality sleep and cardiovascular disease. In the study, the researchers wanted to investigate this relationship by focusing above all on the effects of sleep irregularity, i.e. the alternation of different durations of night rest during the week.
The team has analyzed the data of over 2,000 people between the ages of 45 and 84 to understand how nocturnal habits affected the risk of developing atherosclerosis (also called arteriosclerosis) i.e. a loss of elasticity of the artery walls due to the accumulation of calcium, cholesterol, inflammatory cells and fibrotic material.
The study found that people whose sleep duration varied by more than two hours per week had an up to 40% higher risk of having coronary artery calcifications12% more to have plaques in the carotids and almost double (+91%) to have occlusions in the arteries of the lower limbs.
“Maintaining regular sleep habits and decreasing their variability is an easily adjustable life behavior which can, not only help improve sleep, but also reduce cardiovascular risk,” said the first signatory of the study Kelsie M. Full. (ANSA)