According to HealthDay, new research suggests a link between lost sleep and an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
When loss of sleep was measured both objectively and subjectively, the researchers found it correlated with a higher risk of plaque buildup in blood vessels and a thickening of artery walls.
“Our results indicate that short or poor sleep is associated with some increased risk for cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke,” said lead researcher Rebecca Thurston, director of the Women’s Biobehavioral Health Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh.
The increased risk, she said, “is probably somewhere around small to moderate, not large.”
Thurston couldn’t explain the link, and added that the study did not prove that sleep troubles cause heart risks to rise.
