By Cardio

Authors review of the epidemiological data on the impact of sleep duration and disorders on cardiovascular health suggests the following:

• Both short- and long-duration sleep and sleep disorders such as Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and insomnia are associated with adverse cardiometabolic risk profiles and outcomes
• Treating those with sleep disorders may provide clinical benefits, particularly for blood pressure

Clinical Recommendations

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recently released a statement in favor of ≥7 hours of sleep per night for adults “to promote optimal health.”.

Similarly, Healthy People 2020 has released a series of sleep health goals, including to “increase the proportion of adults who get sufficient sleep.” To increase the clinical awareness of and action on sleep-related issues and disorders, the following steps should be considered:

• The American Heart Association should directly address sleep behavior in a public health campaign to promote ideal cardiac health (akin to its Simple 7 campaign addressing blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, physical activity, diet, weight, and smoking cessation)
• A public health campaign addressing sleep behavior should include explicit guidelines for adequate sleep and suggestions for how to include screening for sleep duration and sleep disorders in routine clinical care and public health settings
• Existing simple assessment tools to screen for sleep apnea risk should be better integrated into routine clinical care and public health settings

St. Onge. AHA Scientific Statement, Circulation. 2016;134:e367–e386.