Good Sleep Onset Timing Can Lower Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. That includes myocardial infarction, heart failure, chronic ischemic heart disease, and stroke. Studies have found that falling asleep during a specific period is associated with a lower risk of CVD.

A study in the UK showed there is a U-shaped relationship (first decreasing and then increasing, or vice versa) between daily sleep time and CVD risk. Participants who went to bed between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. had a lower risk of heart disease than those who went to bed either earlier or later. This phenomenon was more pronounced in women. The paper was published in a 2021 edition of the European Heart Journal.

Sleep Onset Timing and CVD Risk

The research team analyzed data from 88,026 people aged 43 to 79 without CVD, with 51,214 (57.9 percent) women and 36,812 (41.6 percent) men. Participants used a wrist-worn accelerometer to record data on when they fell asleep and when they woke up during normal life for seven days. The results found that 3,172 participants (3.6 percent) developed CVD disease during an average follow-up period of about 5.7 years.