A new study has found that people with hypertension or type 2 diabetes could be at higher risk of death from stroke or heart disease if they slept for less than 6 hours per day. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. 

For the study, the researchers analyzed data of more than 1,600 adults of which 52.5% were women between the ages of 20 and 74 years. The participants had enrolled in the Penn State Adult Cohort. The researchers divided the group into two categories according to cardiometabolic risk. The participants in one group had stage 2 hypertension or type 2 diabetes, while those in the other group had received a diagnosis of or treatment for heart disease or stroke.

Participants were studied in the sleep laboratory (1991-1998) for one night and then researchers tracked their cause of death up to the end of 2016. The results were as follows:

• Of the 512 people who passed away, one-third died of heart disease or stroke and one-fourth died due to cancer.
• People who had high blood pressure or diabetes and slept less than 6 hours had twice the increased risk of dying from heart disease or stroke.
• People who had heart disease or stroke and slept less than 6 hours had three times the increased risk of dying from cancer.
• The increased risk of early death for people with high blood pressure or diabetes was negligible if they slept for more than 6 hours.

“Our study suggests that achieving normal sleep may be protective for some people with these health conditions and risks,” says lead author Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, Ph.D., from the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey. But he cautions that further research is needed to examine whether improving and increasing sleep through medical or behavioural therapies can reduce the risk of early death. “I’d like to see policy changes so that sleep consultations and sleep studies become a more integral part of our healthcare systems. Better identification of people with specific sleep issues would potentially lead to improved prevention, more complete treatment approaches, better long-term outcomes and less healthcare usage,” he added. 

Sleep duration in this study was based on observing one night’s sleep, which may be affected by the first-night effect where participants sleep significantly worse the first night in a lab compared to other consecutive nights, which is the type of sleep study routinely used in clinical practices.

Source: Science Daily, Medical News Today. 

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