Study Links Sleep Imbalance
to Heart Attacks

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women who do not get enough sleep as well as those who sleep more than average may run a greater risk of getting heart disease compared with those who log 8 hours of sleep a day, study findings suggest.

Researchers are not sure why women who got less sleep were more likely to develop heart disease, but they point out that previous studies have linked sleep deprivation with high blood pressure. How too much sleep might lead to heart disease is unclear, according to the report.

More than 71,000 women in the study were asked in 1986 about their sleep habits. At the time they did not have heart disease. A decade later in 1996 the group had recorded a total of 934 heart attacks, including 271 fatal attacks.

After researchers took into account several factors, including snoring, smoking and body mass index--a measure of obesity that takes into account height and weight--women who reported sleeping 5 hours or less per day were 45% more likely to develop heart disease than women who slept 8 hours a night. For those who got 6 and 7 hours of sleep, the heart risk was 18% and 9% higher, respectively.

Compared to women who got 8 hours of z's per day, women who slept 9 or more hours a night were 38% more likely to develop heart disease.

Dr. Najib T. Ayas, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, characterized the findings as a "modest, but significant" association between sleep duration and the risk of heart disease.

The results of the study are published in the January 27th issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

More studies are needed, the researchers state, to get a better idea of how sleep affects the risk of heart disease. One question that needs to be answered, according to Ayas' team, is whether the cause of sleep deprivation-insomnia or a harried lifestyle-affects the risk of heart disease.

Why women who slept 9 or more hours a day were at greater risk of heart disease is uncertain, according to the researchers.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2003;163:205-209.

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