More and more emphasis is being placed on the importance of good sleep. And it is no coincidence: the evidence on impact of sleep on health is strong. The fact that its duration has been incorporated into the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Life’s Essential 8 guidelines confirms this trend.
And it is that from being seen as a trait of laziness, good sleep has begun to occupy the place it deserves: it has begun to be associated with life qualitydisease prevention and risk factor reduction.
The impact of poor sleep
“Sleeping less than 5 hours increases 26% risk of death for any reason,” warns María Celia Daraio, a neurologist specializing in sleep medicine at the DIM.
If we talk specifically about the heart and the brain, the risk increases: “Sleeping less than 6 hours for a long time increases by 48% the likelihood of developing or dying from cardiovascular problems” and quadruples the risk of suffering a cerebrovascular accident (CVA).
Along the same lines, from the Hospital de Clínicas de Buenos Aires, they underline the importance that health professionals are attentive to the parameters related to sleep.
“Patients should be questioned, evaluated, and recommended by their doctors in consultations, as is done with arterial hypertension, blood sugar, cholesterol, diabetes, physical activity, smoking, body weight and diet”, underlines a statement from the institute.
Ramiro Heredia, clinical doctor at the hospital that depends on the University of Buenos Aires, points out: “Several scientific societies place the duration of sleep as risk factor suffer a major cardiovascular event, ie a myocardial infarction, a cerebrovascular accident or premature death, which is that which occurs before the expected age for a population”.
As a result, he points out that poor sleep is already considered as important a risk factor as others to which more attention is usually paid.
health and rest
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world, and over 80% of cardiovascular events could be prevented through the adoption of a healthy lifestyle and the correct management of the various cardiovascular risk factors, including sleep; distinguish themselves from the Clinics.
Cardiologist Mario Boskis, a member of the Argentine Society of Cardiology (SAC), believes that the inclusion of sleep hygiene in the AHA’s 8 Essential Guidelines for Good Cardiovascular Health has helped “make the importance of good sleep”.
To graphically represent the “Direct report that exists between a few hours of sleep and a greater possibility of developing cardiovascular disease”, recalls the cardiologist that “several observational studies have found that not being able to sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night increases the risk of myocardial infarction and the negative impact of traditional risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and type 2 diabetes”.
This risk also increases because, as Daraio points out, heart rate drops during sleep, so the heart works with less intensity and with higher quality blood. “As restores energy lost during the day.”
how long should we sleep
“In a recent study, a group of researchers, after analyzing more than 500 thousand individuals (with surveys on how they slept, mental health questionnaires, cognitive tests and brain MRI), came to the conclusion that a healthy adult should sleep at least 7 hours a day for better mental health, lower incidence of psychiatric disorders and less decline in cognition”Heredia comments.
And is that the impact on brain function is also not in doubt. To what has already been mentioned, Daraio adds that sleeping badly “generates irritability, cognitive deterioration, memory lapses or losses, impaired moral judgment, hallucinations and symptoms similar to attention deficit disorder”.
Conversely, sleeping more than 7 hours was associated in the study cited by Heredia with a decrease in the incidence of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, overweight, obesity and early death.
Quantity is not the only thing that matters
However, the number of hours is related to the characteristics of each person.
“If someone gets 8 hours of sleep and doesn’t feel rested, refreshed or fulfilled afterwards, they probably need to get more sleep. There is no magic number. It is said that we should sleep at least 1/3 of our life. In general, for a healthy adult about 8 hours are recommended,” he adds.
Daraio agrees that the ideal break for an adult is between 7 and 9 hours. In any case, as Heredia warns, it is not only the number of hours of sleep that is important, but also the quality.
“A good measure of how good our night’s rest is tiredness or drowsiness that a person has during the day. If after having rested at night, despite having slept an adequate number of hours, you wake up dull, exhausted, without energy, with a headache and difficulty concentrating, your sleep is probably not of the best quality”, exemplifies.
Recommendations for a good rest
To be able to rest properly, Heredia recommends practicing a good sleep hygiene. For this, the following guidelines can be followed:
- To establish a Regular hours go to sleep and get up. Setting schedules on a daily basis helps “synchronize” our biological clock.
- If you are in the habit or need to take a nap, this should not exceed 45 minutes of duration.
- Avoid excessive consumption alcohol at least 4 hours before bedtime and do not smoke.
- Do not take caffeine 6 hours before going to bed. This includes not only coffee, but also tea and various soft drinks.
- Do not eat food with high fat content, spicy or high in sugar and calories, 4 hours before bedtime. The doctor indicates that, for example, that chocolate has a stimulating effect.
- Do physical activity regularly, but not just before bed.
- Wear linen comfortable.
- keep the room good ventilatedwith a pleasant temperature. Temperature is essential for a good night’s sleep. Heat, as well as excessive cold, affect the way we sleep.
- Delete or lock the file noise distract and block out as much light as possible. For the former, the use of “white noise” is also permitted, which is the sound produced by a fan, an untuned television or an air conditioner.
- use the bed just to sleep and have sexavoiding that this is a place of work, reading, meals, etc.
- It is not recommended to go to sleep hungry. In these cases you can eat something light before going to bed.
- If a person lies down and cannot fall asleep, some experts recommend don’t stay in bed and postpone the time you go to sleep.
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Want to learn more about sleep and health?
These notes may interest you:
➪For better sleep: how to apply the “letting go” technique and a step-by-step guided meditation
➪How to control the negative thoughts that assail us at night and keep us from sleeping
➪An expert reveals the best sleeping position
➪10 keys to sound sleep and avoid micro-awakenings
➪How to calculate your sleep debt
➪Why sleeping well is the key to removing “brain junk”
➪Sleep and insomnia: “We can’t decide to sleep at will”
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Source: Clarin
