New research reveals that sleep regularly from 7 to 8 hours could help reduce your risk of early death, while irregular or prolonged sleep can report hidden health risks.
Study: The impact of sleep health on cardiovascular mortality and all causes combined in the general population. Image Credit: Fast-Stock / Shutterstock.com
A recent Korean study, published in Scientific relationshipsreveals that a prolonged sleep duration of more than eight hours is associated with an increased risk of mortality, especially in men with regular sleep and women with irregular sleep. The study highlights the importance of considering the duration and regularity of sleep while developing personalized interventions on sleep health.
Background
Sleep is an essential physiological process characterized by a state of altered consciousness, reduced physical activity and reduced reactivity to external stimuli. Various dimensions of sleep, including duration, quality, regularity and circadian alignment, contribute collectively to physiological and psychological homeostasis.
Several studies have linked the prolonged sleep duration and poor sleep quality with increased risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and all causes. Emerging evidence has identified the regularity of sleep (the coherence of the moment of sleep-awakening) as a potentially stronger predictor of cardiometabolic health than the duration of sleep alone.
Given the individual impact of the different dimensions of sleep on human health, researchers from Hanyang University Medical Center, in the Republic of Korea, have studied associations between the duration of sleep and the regularity and risks of major unwanted cardiovascular events and the mortality of all causes in Korean adults.
Study design
The study included more than 9,000 participants in the Korean study on the epidemiology of the genome conducted by diseases and disease prevention. Participants were residents of the rural (Ansung) and Urban (ANSAN) community.
Participants were classified into several groups according to the self -depressed duration of sleep (less than seven hours, seven to eight or more hours) and the regularity of sleep (regular or irregular).
Appropriate statistical analyzes have been carried out to study the impact of the duration of sleep, regularity and their combination on cardiovascular disease and the risk of mortality all causes in the population studied. Specific sex analyzes have also been carried out to assess the potential gender -based differences in these clinical results.
Key conclusions
The study identified 1,095 deaths and 811 major unwanted cardiovascular events in the study population during the monitoring period over 15 years of age.
Analysis, in adjustment for clinically relevant confusion factors, revealed that participants with more than eight hours of sleep have a significantly higher risk of mortality all causes than those with seven to eight hours of sleep. A tendency to increase the risk of mortality was also observed in participants with less than seven hours of sleep, although this has not reached statistical meaning.
With regard to the regularity of sleep, the study revealed that participants with irregular sleep habits have a modest but not significant increase in the risk of mortality compared to those with regular sleep habits. However, no significant impact on insufficient sleep has been observed on the risk of mortality all causes. In particular, the study could not find any significant effect of the dimensions of sleep tested (sleep duration, regularity and sufficiency) on the risk of major unwanted cardiovascular events after adjustment for confusion factors. However, a non -significant trend has been observed in long and irregular sleepers.
The combined analysis of all dimensions of sleep revealed that participants with less than seven hours of irregular sleep present the highest risk of mortality. Likewise, participants with more than eight hours of regular sleep have a considerably increased risk of mortality. In women, more than eight hours of irregular sleep were also linked to higher mortality. A tendency to increase cardiovascular risk was observed in participants with long and irregular sleep.
Specific sex analysis has revealed differential associations from the dimensions of sleep with the risk of mortality. In the entire study population, a significantly higher risk of mortality has been observed in men with less than seven hours of irregular sleep or more than eight hours of regular sleep. In women, however, the highest mortality association has been observed in those who have more than eight hours of irregular sleep.
Meaning study
The results of the study reveal that adults who systematically maintain timing and sleep on sleep for seven to eight hours a day are more at risk of mortality. Any gap compared to this range of sleep can increase the risk of mortality. The risk of mortality is particularly pronounced in people with irregular sleep habits accompanied by short or long sleep durations, with significant associations observed, in particular in men suffering from irregular or regular and long sleep, and women with long irregular sleep.
The results of the study highlight the importance of the duration of sleep and regularity as strong predictors independent of unwanted health results. With the emerging epidemiological and mechanistic results, these results suggest that a long sleep period is systematically linked to higher mortality, while short sleep shows a non -significant but concerning trend.
Sleep deprivation is known to increase the risk of various chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes and obesity. The negative influence of short sleep duration on overall health results can help explain the trend concerning higher mortality.
Prolonged sleep duration may indicate undiagnosed underlying health problems or unmanaged comorbidities, such as obstructive sleep apnea, which can potentially increase the risk of cardiovascular and mortality events.
Distinct associations specific to sex observed in the study can be attributed to the regulation of sleep mediated by the sex hormone. In women, hormonal transitions and a greater exposure to psychosocial stress and care responsibilities can have an impact on sleep habits. In men, a higher prevalence of obstructive apnea of sleep and stress linked to work, such as long hours of work, can play a role.
Age -specific associations observed in the study suggest that individuals of average age (40 to 49 years) are more likely to develop health adversities due to short sleep. On the other hand, the elderly (over 60 years old) are more likely to the harmful effects of prolonged sleep.
Collectively, these results highlight the need to consider both sleep characteristics and demographic characteristics (age and sex) while developing personalized sleep health interventions for clinical or public use.
Download your PDF copy now!
