People who suffer from severe insomnia face massively increased risk of developing heart failure, researchers warn today.
According to Norwegian researchers, people with chronic insomnia face a three times increased risk.
Rates of insomnia symptoms such as struggling to get to sleep, waking frequently, or having poor quality sleep, are high among heart failure patients, about 23% to 73%. But it is unclear whether insomnia raises the future risk of heart failure.
Dr Lars Laugsand and his team at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, investigated the link.
In today’s (6 March) European Heart Journal they explain that insomnia "is considered to be a disorder of chronic activation of stress responses, with sympathetic arousal and activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis which is accompanied by increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and circulating catecholamines".
They used figures on insomnia symptoms, sociodemographic factors, and health status, including cardiovascular risk factors, from 54,279 men and women aged 20 to 89 years. Participants were followed for about 11 years, during which time 1,412 were diagnosed with heart failure.
"There was a dose-dependent association between the number of insomnia symptoms and risk of heart failure," the researchers report.
There was a significantly raised risk – at 353% – for those with three or more insomnia symptoms, compared to those with none. When anxiety and depression are added, the risk increased by four times, they said.
If the results are confirmed by future studies, the researchers believe that checking for insomnia symptoms might help prevent heart disease.
Dr Laugsand says: "Insomnia is a potentially treatable condition using strategies such as following simple recommendations concerning sleeping habits, and several psychological and pharmacological therapies. Evaluation of sleep problems might provide additional information that could be used in prevention of heart failure."
Laugsand, L. E. et al. Insomnia and the risk of incident heart failure: a population study. European Heart Journal 6 March 2013 doi:10.1093/eurheartj/eht019
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