It’s two in the morning, and you’re groggy and awkward, legs tucked between the sheets. You know you have to get up in five hours, so you start taking deep breaths of stale air that, even in its stillness, feels like your only friend when you’re fighting for sleep while you’re awake.
Having a bad night’s sleep is part of life now and then. But constantly missing out on those seven or so Crucial hours of sleep increase your risk of various mental and physical conditions or symptoms, including high blood pressure (hypertension) and others that affect your heart health.
Not all of this is necessarily old news. It wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that the American Heart Association added sleep duration to its list of eight essential things that people should do to improve cardiovascular health — the catch-all term for how the heart and blood vessels work.
But the good thing about sleep is that there are plenty of ways to improve it. While persistent poor sleep habits make you more susceptible to disease, the effects of poor sleep are usually cumulative, and you can create new habits to improve the sleep that works for you.
Here’s exactly how lack of sleep affects your heart health, and what you can do about it.
Lack of sleep raises blood pressure (and stress levels)
Over time, not getting enough sleep can lead to high blood pressure. One reason for this, as explained by Dr. Francisco Lopez Jimenez of the Mayo Clinic in a clinic publication, is that sleep helps the body control the hormones needed to manage stress and metabolism.
Sleep deprivation may raise levels of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Too much of this over time can cause your blood pressure to rise, which can lead to this My heart diseasethe number one cause of death in the United States.
This could be a chicken-or-egg scenario for the insomniacs out there, as well as the people whose hearts begin to throb when they realize their alarm will go off in just a few hours. You may feel stressed about sleep because you’re not getting enough of it, which turns acute stress into long-term stress.
If you’re looking for more tips on getting some sleep, check this out Hack your “to-do list” for five minutes that helped a CNET editor deal with his insomnia.
Over time, you may be more likely to have a heart attack or stroke
Since a lack of sleep can contribute to high blood pressure, which is detrimental to cardiovascular health, it stands to reason that lack of sleep is also associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular events, including things like stroke or heart attack.
A more recent study from this year found a link between insomnia and getting five or fewer hours of sleep and an increased risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack).
In addition, some medical conditions that center around sleep, such as sleep apnea and insomnia, can harm your heart health over time, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overwork may lead to other harmful (but irreversible) habits.
Get enough sleep the night before exercising the next day It can affect your exercise by making it more difficult, perhaps more painful and generally less pleasant. Being too tired to exercise means you’ll do it more often, and you shouldn’t force it if your body needs a rest. But over time, a lack of physical activity caused by a lack of sleep (or something else) can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
In fact, regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your heart health It doesn’t have to be an all-out workout every-time. Physical activity may lower blood pressure, as well as help you manage cholesterol, blood sugar, and other factors that can improve your heart health.
Because sleep deprivation also affects the body’s hormones, your appetite may also be affected.
As Rebecca Stetzer, a registered dietitian, explains in a post for Gundersen Health System, hormones that regulate hunger will malfunction after a lack of sleep and may cause you to crave foods that are higher in sugar, fat, or sodium than usual. This means that you may be so exhausted that you are looking for a quicker – and often sugary – snack that will give you that energy you need.
Such as lack of movement, and diets that are high in sugar or sodium in relation to Other nutrients our bodies need It can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
On the whole, getting enough sleep is part of your heart health, but it’s a big part. Along with your levels of physical activity, how many nutrients you eat, lifestyle factors such as smoking and whether you are able to check From time to time to visit the doctorSleep charts the health of your heart.
But daily routines like diet and exercise are never permanent — you can adjust them however you choose at any time, or whenever you can. Here are some More tips to fix your sleepAnd What do you know about heart disease screening?.