Sometimes it is easy to overlook the necessity for sleep. Reflecting back on the holiday season, it was easy for me to stay up late wrapping presents, entertaining guests, visiting friends and family and going out. Sleep can often be sacrificed when we are pressed for time. Even without the holiday season to-do’s, there may be other reasons not to sleep as much. These include working long hours to make money, going to the gym to work out those post-holiday weight gains, etc.
New research has shown that sleep deprivation may not only affect concentration or feeling fatigued, but can possibly be linked to blood vessel damage. Journal of the American Medical Association researchers said that people who get five to seven hours of sleep nightly are almost twice as likely to develop early signs of blood-vessel damage as those who get more rest. Those with less than five hours a night are at even higher risk. Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and occurs after years of damage to blood vessels that surround and support the cardiac muscle.
In addition, lack of sleep can also skew the release of appetite related hormones, contributing to obesity and diabetes. High blood cholesterol and obesity have all been linked to calcium buildup in coronary arteries around the heart. In a study conducted by Lauderdale, sleep time was measured by movement using a wristband device called an actigraph. While most subjects reported they were sleeping seven hours nightly, actigraphs showed that the average length of sleep was closer to six hours. In five years of the study 11 percent of subjects who got five to seven hours of sleep a night developed calcified arteries. With less than five hours of nightly sleep, 27 percent developed blood-vessel calcification.
Research indicates that average sleep hours in the general population have fallen in recent decades, perhaps as people work longer hours, spend time with their families, and get late-night entertainment from television and the Internet.
Although scientists cannot be completely sure there’s a cause and effect between sleep and calcification, it is still recommended that we should get at least seven hours of sleep each night.
[...] that this tends to happen when I have too much on my mind or am stressed. Sleep is vital for optimal health. These are things that have helped me and also my colleagues who have had trouble [...]