<p>People suffering from insomnia may have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, new research has warned.<br /><br />"Sleep is important for biological recovery and takes around a third of our lifetime, but in modern society more and more people complain of insomnia," said Qiao He from China Medical University.<br /><br />"Researchers have found associations between insomnia and poor health outcomes. But the links between insomnia and heart disease or stroke have been inconsistent," said He.<br /><br />The meta-analysis assessed the association between insomnia symptoms and incidence or death from cardiovascular disease (acute myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, heart failure), stroke, or a combination of events.<br /><br />"Insomnia symptoms included difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and non-restorative sleep," said He.<br /><br />Researchers analysed 15 studies with a total of 160,867 participants. During a median follow-up of three to 29.6 years, there were 11,702 adverse events.<br /><br />There were significant associations between difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, and non-restorative sleep and the risk of heart disease and stroke, with increased relative risks of 1.27, 1.11, and 1.18, respectively, compared to those not experiencing these insomnia symptoms.<br /><br />There was no association between early-morning awakening and adverse events.<br /><br />"We found that difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep were associated with 27 per cent, 11 per cent, and 18 per cent higher risks of cardiovascular and stroke events, respectively," He said.<br /><br />"The underlying mechanisms for these links are not completely understood," she said.<br /><br />Women with insomnia symptoms had a slightly higher risk of cardiovascular and stroke events than men, especially for non-restorative sleep, but the difference between sexes did not reach statistical significance, researchers said.<br /><br />The research was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. <br /></p>
<p>People suffering from insomnia may have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, new research has warned.<br /><br />"Sleep is important for biological recovery and takes around a third of our lifetime, but in modern society more and more people complain of insomnia," said Qiao He from China Medical University.<br /><br />"Researchers have found associations between insomnia and poor health outcomes. But the links between insomnia and heart disease or stroke have been inconsistent," said He.<br /><br />The meta-analysis assessed the association between insomnia symptoms and incidence or death from cardiovascular disease (acute myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, heart failure), stroke, or a combination of events.<br /><br />"Insomnia symptoms included difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and non-restorative sleep," said He.<br /><br />Researchers analysed 15 studies with a total of 160,867 participants. During a median follow-up of three to 29.6 years, there were 11,702 adverse events.<br /><br />There were significant associations between difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, and non-restorative sleep and the risk of heart disease and stroke, with increased relative risks of 1.27, 1.11, and 1.18, respectively, compared to those not experiencing these insomnia symptoms.<br /><br />There was no association between early-morning awakening and adverse events.<br /><br />"We found that difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep were associated with 27 per cent, 11 per cent, and 18 per cent higher risks of cardiovascular and stroke events, respectively," He said.<br /><br />"The underlying mechanisms for these links are not completely understood," she said.<br /><br />Women with insomnia symptoms had a slightly higher risk of cardiovascular and stroke events than men, especially for non-restorative sleep, but the difference between sexes did not reach statistical significance, researchers said.<br /><br />The research was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. <br /></p>