According to a new study that was published in Journal of American Heart Associationsleep plays a significant role in the health of patients with Type2 diabetes and hypertension. People with these health issues have a higher risk of death from heart disease or stroke if their sleeping time is less than 6 hours every night. While there are several tried and tested ways of managing these long term health problems which are common across the world, deep sleep at night reduces their risk of developing heart problems.
The study’s lead author Julio Fernandez-Mendoza from Pennsylvania College of Medicine has stated that normal sleep will provide protection to people with these health conditions and their inherent risks. He however cautioned that detailed research is required to examine if improving and increasing sleep by behavioral and medical therapies can reduce patients’ risk of early death. For this study the team analyzed data of 1654 participants of which 52.5 percent were women between age group of 20 – 74 years. All participants that were part of this study were people that had enrolled for Penn State Adult Cohort program.
Participants were divided by researchers into two categories on the basis of their cardio metabolic risk. While the first group had people with either Type 2 diabetes or Stage 2 hypertension the other group had received treatment or diagnosis for heart disease or stroke. The researchers had details of the participants’ sleep duration as the group had agreed to 1 night evaluation at a sleep lab during 1991-98. The team’s analysis revealed that 512 people from this group had died by 2016. Of this one fifth died from heart disease and stroke while one quarter of them died from cancer. Investigators discovered that risk of death among people that had Type 2 diabetes or hypertension was two times higher among people that slept for less than 6 hours every night.
