A new study has revealed that people who do not maintain regular sleeping hours are at a higher risk of strokes and heart attacks.
The research found that irregular sleep increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and heart attacks, regardless of whether the total sleep duration is adequate.
Generally, individuals between the ages of 18 to 64 are recommended to get seven to nine hours of sleep, while those aged 65 and older should get seven to eight hours of sleep.
In the study, experts examined data from 72,269 people aged between 40 and 79, all of whom were part of the UK Biobank study and had no history of heart-related events like heart attacks.
These individuals wore a tracker for seven days that recorded their sleep patterns, and experts then measured each participant’s “Sleep Regularity Index (SRI) score.”
The score was based on the time they went to bed, woke up, the duration of their sleep, and how often they woke up during the night. A score of 0 represented highly irregular sleep, while a score of 100 indicated the best sleep patterns.
The participants were divided into three groups: those with scores below 71.6 were placed in the “irregular sleep” group, those with scores between 71.6 and 87.3 were in the “slightly irregular sleep” group, and those with scores above 87.3 were in the “regular sleep” group.
The participants were monitored for eight years, during which the researchers analyzed how many individuals experienced heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that those with irregular sleep had a 26% higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure compared to those with regular sleep, while those in the slightly irregular group had an 8% higher risk.
