Sleep well and keep cardiovascular disease away

Sleep well and keep cardiovascular disease away

Good sleep pattern can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary artery disease and stroke even in those who are genetically prone. A study with nearly 400 000 participants from the United Kingdom showed that those with a healthy sleep score can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke by about a third [1].

Persons for the study were chosen from UK Biobank, a large-scale prospective study with over 500 000 participants aged 40-69 years when they were recruited in 2006 to 2010 [2]. UK Biobank is available for open access to any bona fide researcher who wants to conduct health-related research for the benefit of the public. It is a detailed investigation of genetic and nongenetic determinants of diseases of middle age and old age.

The participants chosen for the current study excluded those with cardiovascular disease and those with missing values at baseline. For primary analysis there were 385 292 participants. Only 357 246 persons of European descent were included for the joint association between genetic risk and sleep pattern analysis.

Touch screen questionnaires on sleep and other health related aspects were answered by the participants and physical measurements were taken. Blood samples were obtained for genotyping.
Sleep pattern was scored from 0 to 5 on a scale and those with a higher score were considered to have a healthier sleep pattern. Five factors were considered for the low risk group: early chronotype, 7-8 hours of sleep per day, never or rarely devoid of sleep, no snoring, and no frequent excessive daytime sleepiness.

Chronotype is your natural inclination to sleep at a certain time. A simple way to put it is an early bird versus a night owl. A night owl type of person typically has trouble falling asleep before 1 am!
Chronotype preference was assessed in this study using the following question, ‘Do you consider yourself to be (i) definitely a “morning” person, (ii) more a “morning” than “evening” person, (iii) ‘more an “evening” than “morning” person’, or (iv) definitely an “evening” person’.

The benefits were noted in those with low, intermediate, and high genetic risk. This large study concluded that healthy sleep pattern was associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke in all the genetic risk groups. About a tenth of the cardiovascular events in the study population could be attributed to poor sleep pattern. Those with poor sleep pattern and high genetic risk showed the highest risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

They also observed an association between cardiovascular disease and snoring. But that association attenuated after adjustment for body mass index (BMI), hypertension and diabetes mellitus.

Similar results were reported by earlier studies assessing sleep behaviour as well. Short or long sleepers with frequent symptoms of insomnia, as well as those with late chronotype, snoring and daytime sleepiness had increased risk of coronary artery disease and stroke [1].

References

1. Fan M, Sun D, Zhou T, Heianza Y, Lv J, Li L, Qi L. Sleep patterns, genetic susceptibility, and incident cardiovascular disease: a prospective study of 385 292 UK biobank participants. Eur Heart J. 2020 Mar 14;41(11):1182-1189. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehz849. PMID: 31848595; PMCID: PMC7071844.
2. Sudlow C, Gallacher J, Allen N, Beral V, Burton P, Danesh J, Downey P, Elliott P, Green J, Landray M, Liu B, Matthews P, Ong G, Pell J, Silman A, Young A, Sprosen T, Peakman T, Collins R. UK biobank: an open access resource for identifying the causes of a wide range of complex diseases of middle and old age. PLoS Med. 2015 Mar 31;12(3):e1001779. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001779. PMID: 25826379; PMCID: PMC4380465.