Is There A Link Between Sleep Deprivation And Heart Attacks?

Are you used to burning the candle at both ends? In other words, do you often stay up way past your bedtime just to watch television or DVDs? Or do you stay up worrying and going over the day’s events? Or can you simply not get to sleep? Do you then also get up really early, forcing yourself to stay awake with caffeine for the rest of the day? Research shows that you could be doing yourself much more harm than you think!

Lack Of Sleep Affects Your Mood

Everyone knows what it feels like when you have not had enough sleep. At some stage or another, we have all had a night where there was simply no time to get any sleep. Whether it is a late night flight, or we have to stay up late to finish a late piece of homework, stay on at an especially great party, or chat to an interesting or troubled friend, something more important happens. And when a new baby comes along, well! Sleep becomes a dim and distant memory for a few months.

Not getting enough shut eye at night leaves us feeling groggy and grumpy and not ready to face the world. Never try to do anything important the next day because the brain just loses that crucial ability to focus on anything and to make wise judgments.

We feel down and dull and listless when we haven't had enough sleep. That's OK if it's just one day, but it gets even worse when your sleep deprivation is chronic. But now researchers may have discovered just why this occurs.

Sleeplessness Can Impact Your Blood Vessels and Heart

In a huge Norwegian study, scientists followed over fifty thousand people for 11 years. They were asked to fill in questionnaires about their lifestyles and general health at the beginning of the trial and at regular intervals throughout the study.

These were a group of completely ordinary people aged between 20 and 89, who had no problems at the start of the study.

This was a very well conducted, prospective study and, although it would be very easy to say that the older people in the cohort would probably have heart disease anyway because of their age, the researchers took everything into consideration, such as age, smoking, and obesity — factors which could affect the result. In addition to this, none of the participants started off with heart disease, so it could very likely be a very meaningful finding.

Although this particular team of researchers found no actual link between sleep and cardiovascular problems, other scientists have discovered a pattern.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Diane Lauderdale found that a lack of sleep caused hardening of the arteries. This is when plaques build up in the arteries of the heart and make them less flexible over time. If the build up of this type of material is too great, it can break away from the artery walls and block the blood vessels further along, causing either a stroke, if it is in the brain, or a heart attack.

How Does A Lack Of Sleep Affect You?

The simple answer is that scientists really don’t know yet. However, a lot of little pieces of research are coming together to start to paint a picture. We can now have a good guess as to what is going on.

Think about the last time that you did an all nighter. How did you feel, physically, the next day? The usual answer is that you felt extremely tired, and that your heart felt as if it was beating faster than usual. You probably ate and drank more as a result of feeling ‘not all there’, hoping for anything that could potentially help you stay awake and allow you to focus.

Your body needs sleep to ‘consolidate’ itself. That means that hundreds of things are ‘reset’ when you sleep. Hormone levels are brought back into balance. Tissues are regenerated and the memories from the events of the day are analyzed and stored or discarded as we dream. A lack of sleep means that none of these things can happen efficiently.

More stress hormones are released into the blood stream if there is not enough sleep, and these can negatively affect blood vessel function. This may be what gives us that nervous, edgy feeling when we have not slept.

Another reason why some people do not sleep well is if they have sleep apnea. This is a condition in which the airways collapse during sleep, causing the sufferer to temporarily stop breathing and have to gasp for air. Sleep apnea is more common in obese people. It can happen in heavy snorers too.

This condition can cause the heart beat to race along to try and distribute enough oxygen around the system and raise blood pressure. So instead of restful sleep, the opposite occurs and the sufferer feels like they have run a 100m sprint at night.

What to Do If You Are Worried About Sleeping Less Than You Should

If you are worried with insomnia or think that you may have sleep apnea then there are many treatments available to help. Go along to see your doctor who will try to diagnose the problem.

To get a better quality of sleep the following advice might be helpful:

• Try to maintain a healthy weight as overweight people are more likely to have a problem with their airways at night.
• Do not drink any caffeine-heavy drinks late at night as they will stimulate you to keep you awake.
• Similarly, do not eat a heavy meal too late at night.
• Have a warm, milky drink.
• Take a relaxing bath.
• Set yourself up with a pampering and relaxing night-time routine and stick to it.
• In the same way, make your own bedroom a calm and relaxing place which is free from electronic gadgets and too much to stimulate you at night.

I don’t know how a night’s sleep would make you wealthy, but they do say, that ‘early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy…’ Perhaps there is a little truth in that old wives’ tale after all.