Sleep: your heart health depends on it

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Sleep occupies a third of our lives according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, Sleep-A New Cardiovascular Frontier.
 
Can you believe that? Do you think that is too much time for sleep? Well, our bodies need sleep to rejuvinate so we can live our lives to the fullest when we are awake. So when we have disturbed sleep or sleep apnea, this can have ill effects on the cardiovascular system.

Let's talk first about some common definitions in sleep disorders that also affect your heart and vascular system.

Snoring: is caused by vibrations of relaxed throat tissues and is often the precursor or companion of sleep apnea.

Central sleep apnea: breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep because the brain doesn't send proper signals to the muscles that control your breathing. In adults with heart disease, a severe drop in blood oxygen levels caused by an apnea episode can cause chest pain, heart rhythm changes or even heart attacks.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): breathing is not normal because of an upper airway obstruction.  Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects an estimated 15 million adult Americans and is present in a large proportion of patients with hypertension and in those with other cardiovascular disorders, including coronary artery disease, stroke, and atrial fibrillation (J Am Coll Cardiol, 2008; 52:686-717). A complication of this disorder is a form of congestive heart failure called cor pulmonale
 
CPAP: "breathing machine" therapy for obstructive sleep apnea to provide Continuous Positive Airway Pressure
 
 
Dr. Virend Somers, professor of hypertension and cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, states that there is a strong association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypertension, heart failure, stroke and ischemic heart disease (Talk about sleep, March 28, 2001)

A recent study further proves the relationship between sleep apnea and heart dysfunction. In the article “Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and its Cardiovascular Consequences” (T. Douglas Bradley, MD, and John Floras, MD, The Lancet, January 2009), it was shown that OSA with repetitive apneas expose the cardiovascular system to cycles of hypoxia and noxious stimuli which can, in turn, cause hypertension, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, and stroke. Men with untreated severe sleep apnea are more likely to have a heart attack (Apr 20, 2009 Nelson Acquilano, suite101.com).
 
 
Other links for more information about sleep disorders:
 
Journal of the American College of Cardiology: http://tinyurl.com/yeayqpd
 
National Center for Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) in the National Institute of Health (NIH) http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/ncsdr/index.htm

Take the Interactive sleep quiz: http://tinyurl.com/4btah

Talk about sleep: http://tinyurl.com/yc683df

American Heart Association: http://tinyurl.com/ychs26o
 

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