Are You A Night Owl? You May Be Doubling Your Risk of Heart Disease

I take a sleep history from all patients cared for at the Kahn Center and it is impressive how many patients have a habit of staying up to midnight, 1AM, or even later night after night, the classic night owl. Not for me, lights out by 10PM or earlier. Does the extreme night owl pattern of sleep put your heart at risk? A recent study provides data indicating their may be a real risk to burning the midnight owl as a regular pattern.

STUDY

The relationship between sleep pattern and coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by non-contrast CT scans in the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) pilot cohort was assessed. Participants aged 50–64 years were randomly recruited and underwent extensive examination including imaging and assessments of physical activity. 771 participants (47 % male, average age 58 years) were included in this analysis. Self-assessed sleep type was classified as extreme morning, moderate morning, intermediate, moderate evening, or extreme evening. 10-year risk of first-onset cardiovascular disease was estimated.

Significant CAC (a calcium score at least >10) was present in 29 % of the cohort. CAC prevalence increased from extreme morning to extreme evening type (22 %, 28 %, 29 %, 27 %, 41 % respectively).

In an assessment controlling for confounders, extreme evening chronotype was independently associated with increased CAC prevalence compared to extreme morning type (1.9X higher prevalence).

IMPLICATIONS

The study findings suggest sleep patterns may play an importantrole in atherosclerosis. If you are an extreme night owl perhaps consider rearranging your pattern, perhaps half an hour at a time earlier week after week, and follow the age old saying "early to bed, early to rise".

Author

Dr. Joel Kahn

You Might Also Enjoy...

What Are The Odds Over 10 Years of Developing Coronary Lesions After a Normal CT Angiogram?

Overall, the researchers found that approximately one-third of patients who underwent CCTA and had normal results developed CAD over the 10-year study period that was identified on repeat imaging.

Why You Want to Add GG to Your Statin Prescription

GG supplementation boosts the synthesis of essential cell signaling molecules not achieved by CoQ10 supplementation. GG supplementation mitigates many of the side effects of statins, which affect mitochondrial function and cellular health.

Heart Disease in Women: A Little Bit Goes Far for Harm

In women, major adverse cardiovascular events appeared to emerge at a lower PB, and to rise more sharply. Findings support sex-specific interpretation of coronary computed tomography angiography-derived plaque metrics for timely intervention in women.

Do Children Raised on a Vegan Diet Have Acceptable Growth Patterns?

These findings suggest that family vegan dietary patterns may support appropriate infant growth, but further work is needed to clarify how vegan diet quality and nutritional counseling during pregnancy and infancy support optimal infant development.

Ezetimibe (Zetia) May Lower the Risk of Dementia Sevenfold!

The animal and cultured-cell models for which we present data substantiate that ezetimibe indeed reduces aggregates across a broad spectrum of biological systems, and that it does so by blocking or dissociating dysfunctional (or non-functional) interaction

What Do Medical Societies Worldwide Advise for Saturated Fat Intake?

The official positions of WHO, AHA, ESC and most national cardiology and heart foundations still recommend keeping saturated fat ≤10% of energy for the general population and closer to 5–7% for those at elevated cardiovascular risk.