Lack of Sleep More Dangerous for Women
July 5, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
I’ve always loved to sleep, so I’m not too worried about these new sleep study results. However, some of you ladies who don’t get at least seven or eight hours of sleep per night may need to shape up.
Research from the University of Warwick and University College London found that women who don’t get enough sleep are at higher risk of heart disease and heart-related problems than men with the same sleeping patterns. That seems unfair, but you can’t really argue with science.
The new sleep research, published in journal SLEEP, is the first large-scale study (with 4,600 participants) to examine the relationships between measures of inflammation and sleep duration in both men and women.
Michelle Miller, lead author of the study from Warwick Medical School, said that previous short-term sleep deprivation studies have suggested that inflammatory mechanisms may play a role in cardiovascular risk associated with sleep deprivation. This current research further explored the idea while also comparing the sleep patterns and heart risks of males and females.
Dr. Miller added that the new research supports “the idea that short sleep is associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk and that the association between sleep duration and cardiovascular risk factors is markedly different in men and women.”
(Image via stock.xchng)
