Getting Enough Shut-eye Promotes Better Heart Health

Famed actor and comedian W. C. Fields once joked that the best cure for insomnia was to get a lot of sleep.

On a serious note, however, we know getting a good night’s rest also is good for your heart. It’s so beneficial that the American Heart Association (AHA) recently upgraded its Life’s Simple 7™ cardiovascular health checklist to Life’s Essential 8™, adding sleep as a factor for optimal heart health. In releasing its findings, the AHA said the latest research shows people with healthier sleep patterns better manage weight, blood pressure and their risk for type 2 diabetes.

The AHA says adults should ideally get 7-9 hours of sleep each day. Children 5 and under should get 10-16 hours of sleep each 24 hours, while those 6-12 should be getting 9-12 hours. Youth 13-18 should be getting 8-10 hours of shut-eye. 

Sleep experts at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) say sleep affects nearly our entire body, including growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health. A lack of sleep can even produce diabetic-like conditions in otherwise healthy people, says the NIH.

So, what’s in Life’s Essential 8 in addition to sleep? The other seven factors are:

• Diet (Updated with a new guide to assess diet quality)
• Physical activity
• Nicotine exposure (Updated to include e-cigarettes and vaping devices)
• Body mass index
• Blood lipids (Updated to monitor non-HDL cholesterol versus total cholesterol)
• Blood glucose (Updated to include the option of hemoglobin A1c testing for people with or without type 1 or type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.)
• Blood pressure

“Cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of death in the U.S. and globally, but the good news is there are many things we can do to positively influence our heart health,” says Eric Elgin, MD, Chief of Cardiology with Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute. “Taking control of your heart health is important and all of us at Lehigh Valley Health Network and Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute are here to help you on your journey.”