Better Sleep Quality May Reduce Risk of Heart Failure

Sleep quality refers to how well a person sleeps. Good sleep quality means falling asleep relatively quickly, sleeping soundly through the night, and going back to sleep easily if you awaken during the night. According to a new study, better sleep quality may help reduce the risk of heart failure by up to 42%.

For their study, the researchers used data from the UK Biobank. They included data from 408,802 participants who had not experienced heart failure. The participants were followed for an average of 11.5 years. Questionnaires were utilized to gather sleep behavior data, including sleep duration, snoring, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness. The data was used to assign a healthy sleep score to each participant. All incidences of heart failure were recorded.

Participants with the highest healthy sleep scores were found to have a 42% reduced risk of heart failure compared to those with the lowest healthy sleep scores. In addition, the risk of heart failure was 8% lower in participants who were early risers, 12% lower in participants who slept 7-8 hours per night, 17% lower in those who did not experience frequent insomnia, and 34% lower in participants who did not experience daytime sleepiness.

The study was conducted by researchers from Tulane University.It was published online ahead of print on November 16, 2020 in the journal Circulation.