Sleep is crucial for both physical and mental health. It allows the body and brain to repair, restore, and rejuvenate, impacting everything from mood and concentration to immune function and disease prevention. Adequate sleep is essential for maintaining overall well-being and optimal functioning.
A study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Baylor University, recently published in Menopause has found that midlife sleep habits may matter more than previously thought, especially for menopausal women who smoke. The large study found that poor sleep when combined with high blood pressure and nicotine use sharply increases the risk of heart problems among menopausal women who don’t score well in overall health.
Investigating the Heart-Sleep Link
The American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8-nutrition, physical activity, smoking abstinence, sleep, body mass index, blood lipids, blood sugar, and blood pressure) health assessment tool measurements suggest that during menopause transition, only 1 in 5 women will have optimal scores. Among the Life’s Essential 8 components, blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep quality, and nicotine use are the main factors in driving future cardiovascular risks, with sleep being particularly important for long-term cardiovascular health.
“Previously, we’ve shown that the menopause transition is a time of accelerating cardiovascular risk,” said senior author Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of epidemiology at Pitt’s School of Public Health. “This study underscores that it’s also an opportunity for women to take the reins on their heart health.”
For this study, health data were collected and analyzed from 3,000 women enrolled in the ongoing, multi-site, multi-ethnic, longitudinal Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) that began in 1996. Participant LE8 scores at baseline, at around 46 years old, were compared to their evolving trajectories over time.
The impacts of each LE8 component were examined while also monitoring subclinical cardiovascular disease measures, such as increased carotid-artery thickness, to cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, to mortality of all causes.
What They Found
According to the researchers, of the LE8 components, sleep quality, nicotine use, blood pressure, and blood glucose were the most important factors found to be driving the participants’ future risk of cardiovascular events. Having low total LE8 scores was found to correlate with increased cardiovascular risk; however, only 21% of the midlife women studied had an ideal LE8 score.
It was also noted that sleep emerged as a potential predictor for the long-term effects of cardiovascular disease events as well as all-cause mortality; however, it was not linked to the short-term effects of carotid-artery thickening.
At midlife, meeting the bar for healthy sleep, defined in Life’s Essential (7-9 hours on average for most adults), may contribute to women’s heart health and longevity, but this is just a hypothesis that should be tested in a future clinical trial, said Ziyuan Wang, Ph.D. candidate at Pitt Public Health and first author.
“With heart disease being the leading cause of death in women, these findings point to the need for lifestyle and medical interventions to improve heart health during and after menopause among midlife women,” said El Khoudary.
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