Rest and Heart Health

[Igifuno]

My sleep patterns have been up and down lately. A few weeks ago, my blood pressure was way up, I began to have major insomnia and was extremely tired during the day. I was able to get the BP under control with Arginine/Citrulline and I feel like I’m getting better sleep now, but for some reason, I am still extremely exhausted during the day.

I started reading about how rest effects heart health, and I wasn’t surprised to find that heart health is very dependent on the amount of good rest you are able to achieve during the night.
We often talk about sleep, or moreover, the lack of it many of us get. I hear all too often in conversation with fellow members that getting 4-5 hours of sleep is common, and I think we need to be aware of the long term (but you’ll be surprised to find out how short term this long term actually is) adverse health and heart effects that a lack of sleep has on individuals. Also, I know some members have sleep apnea, and I think I may have it as well, because when I lie on my back or fall asleep sitting up, my airway is often blocked and I jump when I gasp for air.

Below are some interesting excerpts from some research on the topic:

Rest and Heart Health
Sleep is crucial for good health. It helps memory and mood, keeps you trim, strengthens your immune system, fights inflammation and keeps your heart and blood vessels in tip-top shape.
"When you're sleeping you're regulating hormone levels, you're regulating insulin levels, your blood pressure is being kept under control, there are a lot of things going on, and if you're not getting enough sleep you're throwing these things out of whack,"

While you're snoozing, the body repairs damaged tissue, produces crucial hormones and strengthens memories -- a process called consolidation, which helps you perform a new skill better after sleeping than you would if you spent an equivalent amount of time awake
Short sleepers, typically defined as people who get less than six hours of sleep a night, as well as people who don't spend enough time in the deepest stages of sleep, are at higher risk of heart attacks and strokes than those who get at least seven hours.

A 2011 study in male Japanese factory workers found those who slept less than six hours a night had a five-fold increased heart attack risk over a 14-year span compared with those who logged between seven and eight hours a night. Another published in 2011 found that healthy men 65 and older with normal blood pressure were nearly twice as likely to develop hypertension during the study if they spent less time in the deepest sleep stage (known as slow-wave sleep) compared with those who spent the most time deeply asleep.

There's also some limited evidence that short-term sleep deprivation may be harmful to those with heart problems. In 2012, Swedish researchers reported that hospital admissions for heart attacks increased by about four percent in the week after the spring transition to daylight saving time compared to other weeks. This is when we "spring forward" and set our clocks an hour ahead -- meaning many of us lose an hour of sleep.

It's not clear why sleep may affect the heart, or if there is some unidentified factor that affects your cardiovascular system and ability to sleep. But one nighttime problem is a known heart hazard -- sleep apnea. People who have sleep apnea tend to snore and have upper airway collapse during sleep. This causes them to snort and gasp for breath, without really waking up enough to be aware of it.

"It's as if somebody's choking you, so your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure goes up, and instead of having a daily cycle in which everything slows down at night, instead everything is higher during the night," says Charles Czeisler, M.D., the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. "Over time, even your daytime blood pressure is higher." In fact, he adds, many experts think sleep apnea may account for one-third of all cases of high blood pressure among adults.

If you're not feeling rested during the day and your bed partner says you snore, you should ask your doctor about sleep apnea. "There's enough evidence out there suggesting that sleep apnea is bad that people need to take it seriously," Dr. Somers says.

Source: Huff Post Article: How Lack of Sleep Hurts Your Health
Source: National Sleep Foundation Article: Diet, Exercise and Sleep



Those with sleep apnea also have a higher level of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) action. The SNS controls the heart rate and the constriction of the blood vessels. If you don't have sleep apnea, shortly after you fall asleep, your blood pressure and SNS activity will slowly fall. This can't happen when you're waking up at regular intervals to resume breathing.

If you think you're in the clear because you're a young whipper-snapper, think again. Teens that sleep less than 6.5 hours per night are more than twice as likely to get high blood pressure [source: AHA]. When you consider that teens average roughly seven hours of sleep when they require nine, it's clear that kids need to put down that Guitar Hero, shut off the iPhone and catch some Zs.

Now for the good news. If you want to eliminate this factor from whether you develop heart disease, all you need to do is go beddy-bye for eight hours. There are other factors, like what you eat and how much you exercise, but this one is taken care of by doing something most people love to do -- sleep. Doctors even believe that 30-minute naps a few times a week can improve your health, and many forward-thinking companies are outfitting their buildings with nap rooms.

Source: Discovery Health Article on the Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Heart

This is definitely a concern for me now.. I don’t think I’ve gotten enough sleep for quite a while now. As stated above, this could have adverse health effects very quickly in the grand scheme of things. I'm motivated to see a doc about it and hope it's not bad enough where I'll have to wear a machine, but I'm pretty convinced I have sleep apnea.

Food for thought.. hope everyone gets a good night sleep tonight!

[Rusty11]

Great info. I can't even tell you when the last 8-hr night sleep I had. I go to bed like clockwork at 10. On a good night, it's around 6 hrs. On a bad night, it's an ambien for me. When I hit 50, something happened to my ability to sleep. Damned if I know what...
I am not tired during the workday, though. It hits hard about 7. At 10...wide awake. Very annoying. I think it's become a mental thing...expecting the worse.

[Igifuno]

Me too Rusty, I really wish I could sleep longer than my body allows. I always wake up thinking about what I have to do. Take the dog out, make the kids breakfast, prep for work.. if I wake up even slightly and my mind starts going, thats all she wrote.

I'm going to see a doc about sleep apnea, which I'm convinced I have. Maybe ambien is the answer.. to be totally honest though, I need to be more responsible and get myself in bed a lot earlier than I have been though. I won't think twice about staying up until 1-2am on the board, posting/reading, etc. I know damn well I'm going to be up at 6am so we're talking 4-5 hours sleep on average, which obviously isn't great in the long term.

[Bert]

Thanks for the info.

[Rusty11]

Ahhh...just got up from an hour nap. I never nap. The wife, dog, and I are at the coast this week and the sound of the waves knocked me out. I need to move here.

[Igifuno]

Ahhh...just got up from an hour nap. I never nap. The wife, dog, and I are at the coast this week and the sound of the waves knocked me out. I need to move here.

Sounds splendid man. Enjoy...

[Rusty11]

Thanks. Back to reality tomorrow. I've actually slept about 7.5 hours a night this past week. I did a little more reading on this sleep-heart health connection. There's no doubt I'd live longer/healthier if I moved here

[DADDYDBOL]

Great post, thanks Igifuno!

[Igifuno]

Thanks. Back to reality tomorrow. I've actually slept about 7.5 hours a night this past week. I did a little more reading on this sleep-heart health connection. There's no doubt I'd live longer/healthier if I moved here

Kel (I think) posted a motivational video the other day where the speaker said that, when you don't do what you want in life, it's like committing spiritual suicide.

That really hit home with me because there are things I'd rather do (for work) than what I do. The sad reality is, however, I'm way too deep in life (house/kids/bills) to step away from what I do for what I love.

But there's no doubt that there is a factor in that as well. If you do what you want in life, live where you want and are most relaxed, I'm sure life may be a little longer as well.

[derekkpapa1]

Great info all makes sense- rest body and mind