While it is important to get regulated sleep – around 8 to nine hours for adults daily – to keep your body balance intact, not many are doing so.
Sound sleep helps regulate your blood pressure, metabolism, and heart function – but the fast-paced lifestyle of today is only causing more insomnia – thereby leading to many conditions and diseases that are life-threatening.
According to experts, poor sleep not only increases the risk of heart troubles but can also tell you the exact condition you may have. A new study published in the journal Frontiers has found that those who regularly go to bed after midnight on weekdays have more than 60 per cent higher risk of heart attack, and that the timing of sleep could directly affect heart health.
How does late sleeping affect your heart?
According to researchers, late-night sleeping leads to:
Disruption in circadian rhythm
An inconsistent sleep schedule not just disturbs your timings but also makes the body’s internal clock go haywire. While it usually regulates essential functions like blood pressure and metabolism, staying up late disrupts this rhythm.
Spikes hypertension
Chronic disruption of the circadian rhythm leads to persistent high blood pressure levels, which in the long run can strain your heart and blood vessels.
Contributes to other risks
Sleeplessness also causes inflammation, hormonal imbalances, and metabolic stress – all of which increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
According to the study, those who regularly went to bed late on weekdays were more likely to experience a heart attack, and the pattern did not appear on weekends. This, researchers said, suggested that weekday routines, which were combined with early wakeup times, only increase your heart’s workload. These results also show that bedtime can influence heart health independently of sleep duration.
How was the study conducted?
The study took sleep pattern information from more than 4,500 adult participants of the Sleep Heart Health Study, which tracks sleep patterns and heart health outcomes. Participants reported their usual bedtime and wake-up time for both weekdays and weekends. Their bedtimes were grouped into four ranges –
- Before 10:00 pm
- Between 10:01 pm and 11:00 pm
- Between 11:01 pm and midnight
- After midnight
Scientists said they followed the sleep-wake cycle of the participants for more than a decade to record who developed myocardial infarction, the medical term for heart attack. The results showed a clear pattern that those who went to bed after midnight during weekdays were much more likely to have a heart attack than those who slept between 10:01 pm and 11:00 pm.
Even after accounting for other lifestyle risk factors like smoking, body weight, high blood pressure, diabetes, and alcohol, the link persisted. Those with late weekday bedtimes had about a 63 per cent higher risk of heart attack.
Interestingly, going to bed very early, before 10:00 pm, also carried a slightly higher risk, forming a U-shaped pattern where both extremes of bedtime appeared less favourable.
How to fix your weekday sleep routines?
To fix your sleep routine, make sure to stick to a consistent sleep schedule, which includes the weekends, by creating a relaxing pre-bedtime ritual that can help you wind down. Key expert-approved practices include:
- Avoid caffeine and heavy meals close to bedtime
- Getting natural light exposure in the morning
- Minimise screen time before bed, as the blue light can disrupt your body’s natural sleep signals
- Try doing relaxing activities like reading, listening to calming music, taking a warm bath or shower, or doing a guided meditation
- Keep your bedroom cool, quiet, and dark to promote better sleep
- Consult a doctor if you have sleep-related issues and do not self-medicate.