By Dr. Anuj Chandra, M.D., D.ABSM
There is new
evidence of the connection between insufficient sleep and stroke. I just
returned from the SLEEP conference in Boston, the 26th annual meeting of the
Associated Professional Sleep Societies, where the research was presented.
Sleep
researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that people who
routinely sleep only six hours a night have a risk of stroke four times greater
than people who got seven to eight hours of sleep every night.
One reason
this is so significant is that the study looked at people who are not
overweight and who are at low risk for obstructive sleep apnea. We know that
being overweight is a significant risk factor for stroke, but that was not a
factor here.
Since 30% of working
adults sleep less than six hours a night, According to the US Centers for
Disease Control, this could affect an enormous number of people.
People often overlook
insomnia as a sleep issue. They think they just have to put up with it, but there
are non-drug treatments for insomnia that work very well. This research shows
how important it is to take insufficient sleep seriously. Treatment of insomnia
does help reduce stroke. Insomnia needs to be recognized and treated.
The study also
found a difference in risk according to racial group. “We find that sleep
duration might partially explain the relationship between ethnic differences in
stroke symptoms,” according to Megan Ruiter, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a UAB
post-doctoral fellow in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the School of
Medicine. “African-Americans
had a greater prevalence of short sleep, and they were more likely to have
stroke symptoms.”
For more details, read these articles from USAToday
and the University of Alabama.
