People seeking to live a healthy lifestyle benefit from a good night’s sleep, researchers reported today.
Having the enough sleep – seven hours or more a night – cut the risk of dying by 16 percentage points for people, researchers found.
The researchers from the Netherlands set out to establish the benefits of sleep for people who have healthy lives by keeping fit, avoiding tobacco, keeping fit and keeping alcohol consumption down.
The findings come from a study of nearly 15,000 young adults over a 12-year period.
The research, reported in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, showed a healthy lifestyle cut the risk of heart disease by 57% – but this increased to 65% among people who had adequate sleep.
And the risk of dying was cut by 83% when sleep was added to other factors.
Critics said the findings did not prove a link between sleep and heart disease. One explanation could be that cutting back on sleep indicates other psychological issues – such high pressured jobs.
Researcher Dr Monique Verschuren, from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands, said sleep "should now be mentioned as an additional way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease".
She said: "It is always important to confirm results but the evidence is certainly growing that sleep should be added to our list of cardiovascular disease risk factors."
Doireann Maddock, of the British Heart Foundation, said the findings might be unreliable as sleep patterns were reported in surveys.
She said: "We need to see further research to fully understand the link between sleeping habits and your heart.
"Troubled sleepers should not be alarmed – this study doesn’t mean sleepless nights cause heart disease.
"If you find it difficult to drift off, avoiding caffeine and heavy meals too close to the end of the day may help. But if lack of sleep is becoming a problem, make sure you have a chat to your doctor."
Sufficient sleep duration contributes to lower cardiovascular disease risk in addition to four traditional lifestyle factors: the MORGEN study. Eur J Prevent Cardiol 2013; DOI: 10.1177/2047487313493057.
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