Sleep Duration Is Linked To Cardiovascular Health, Studies Show

When you think about activities that actively support your heart health, what comes to mind? Maybe it's a HIIT exercise class or a long run to really "work out" those heart muscles. Or perhaps it's eating clean to prevent plaque buildup in your arteries.

According to an ongoing study of cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors, sleep habits actually play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

After measuring the sleep duration and efficiency of around 2,000 adults, researchers showed that the two were correlated and had a combined impact on cardiovascular health.

What's more, short sleepers also had a higher prevalence of overweight/ obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension—displaying a correlation between unhealthy sleep habits and other risks to cardiovascular health.

These findings have led the American Heart Association to add sleep to its Life's Simple 7 list of the seven most important behaviors for heart health. (The other steps are to stop smoking, eat better, get active, lose weight, manage blood pressure, control cholesterol, and reduce blood sugar.)

All this to say, tending to your heart health requires more than just getting your heart rate up. Rest is just as important. It's not always easy to get a good night's sleep, but creating healthy wind-down habits is the first step.

Eating heart-healthy foods and doing cardio are both great ways to encourage a healthy heart—but getting enough sleep is key, as research demonstrates. Getting less than seven hours of sleep raises the risk for other compounding health concerns like type 2 diabetes and hypertension.