Insufficient Sleep Linked to Cardiovascular Risks, Weekend Recovery Ineffective
In a recent study, researchers have highlighted the detrimental effects of insufficient sleep, emphasizing that attempting to make up for it on weekends is not a viable solution. The findings from a small-scale investigation revealed that crucial indicators of cardiovascular health, such as heart rate and blood pressure, deteriorate progressively over the course of a week when an individual consistently gets only about five hours of sleep each night.
Efforts to compensate for lost sleep during weekends were ineffective in restoring these essential health metrics to their normal levels. Anne-Marie Chang, an associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State University and a co-author of the study, noted, Only 65% of adults in the U.S. regularly sleep the recommended seven hours per night, and there’s a lot of evidence suggesting that this lack of sleep is associated with cardiovascular disease in the long term.
Chang further elaborated, Our research reveals a potential mechanism for this longitudinal relationship, where enough successive hits to your cardiovascular health while you’re young could make your heart more prone to cardiovascular disease in the future. The study involved 15 healthy male participants aged 20 to 35, observed over an 11-day span.
Initially, participants were permitted up to 10 hours of sleep each night for the initial three nights, enabling researchers to establish a baseline. Subsequently, over the following five nights, the participants were restricted to just five hours of sleep per night. This was followed by two nights of recovery, during which they were allowed up to 10 hours of sleep per night.
Throughout the study, the researchers diligently monitored the resting heart rates and blood pressure of the participants every two hours during the day. This approach allowed them to account for any variations attributable to the time of day, such as the natural decrease in heart rate upon waking. The findings indicated a gradual rise in participants’ heart rates, increasing by nearly one beat per minute with each successive day.
At the study’s outset, the average baseline heart rate stood at 69 beats per minute (BPM). However, by the study’s conclusion, it had surged to 78 BPM. Systolic blood pressure, which gauges arterial pressure during heartbeats and is represented by the higher number in a blood pressure reading, also exhibited a consistent daily increase. Initially averaging at 116 mm Hg, it escalated to approximately 119.5 mm Hg during the recovery phase. (A reading of 120 or lower is deemed within the normal range.)
Lead author David Reichenberger, a graduate student at Penn State, underlined, Both heart rate and systolic blood pressure increased with each successive day and did not return to baseline levels by the end of the recovery period. So, despite having additional opportunity to rest, by the end of the weekend of the study, their cardiovascular systems still had not recovered.
Chang, Reichenberger’s advisor, suggested that longer timeframes might be necessary for complete recuperation following multiple consecutive nights of sleep deprivation. She emphasized the multifaceted influence of sleep on various aspects of health and well-being: Sleep is a biological process, but it’s also a behavioral one and one that we often have a lot of control over. Not only does sleep affect our cardiovascular health, but it also affects our weight, our mental health, our ability to focus and our ability to maintain healthy relationships with others, among many other things.
Chang expressed optimism that as understanding of the significance of sleep continues to expand, it will increasingly receive attention as a focal point for enhancing overall health. The study’s findings were recently featured in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
