A study of 1.2 million people has shown that insomnia can lead to cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks. Photo: File
Alexandria: According to a new study, insomnia and less than five hours of sleep per day can lead to heart disease, but the effect may be greater on women.
In a long study published in the journal ‘Clinical Cardiology’, the data of 1.2 million people from America, Norway, Germany, Taiwan and China has been taken. The majority (96 percent) had no heart disease and 43 percent of women in the study.
Then it was found that 13 percent of the participants had some form of insomnia. That is, they had the three major symptoms of having difficulty falling asleep, not being able to maintain continuous deep sleep, and waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep.
When all participants were followed up for several years, 2,406 people with insomnia and 12,398 people with good sleep had mild or severe heart attacks over 9 years. According to experts, if you sleep five hours or less a day, the risk of a heart attack can increase by 1.56 (a little more than 14 times) compared to other people. But it involved more women, which showed that restlessness and short sleep time can make women more prone to heart disease.
Professor Yamuna Din of Alexandria University, Egypt, involved in the study, said that earlier we did not consider insomnia as a disease, but with new research, it is becoming the cause of many diseases, including blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. In the new context, sleep needs to be given a lot of importance.
Experts have advised that it is important to set a time for sleep. Keep the room dark, noise-free and cool while sleeping. Do not eat a heavy meal two to three hours before going to bed, otherwise sleep may be affected. Avoid mobile phones and tablets completely while sleeping.
(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3&appId=770767426360150”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));