Poor sleep is as bad for heart health as smoking

Sleeping poorly, less than seven hours a night, is as harmful to heart and brain health as smoking traditional or e-cigarettes, being obese and leading a sedentary lifestyle, says a new guideline from the American Heart Association (AHA, its acronym). in English), which will be replicated by Brazilian entities.

Released this Wednesday (29), the new version of Lifes’s Simple, created in 2010 and which brings together behavioral metrics and health risk factors, incorporates sleep problems for the first time. The update was based on more than 2,400 scientific studies.

For adults, the recommendation is seven to nine hours of sleep.

Until then, the guideline had included seven risk factors — smoking, diet, physical activity, cholesterol level, blood glucose, body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure.

According to the AHA, 80% of cardiovascular diseases are preventable, that is, they are linked to diet and lifestyle. These are the diseases that cause the most deaths in Brazil.

“The new sleep duration metric reflects the latest research findings: sleep impacts overall health, and people who have healthier sleep patterns better manage other health factors such as weight, blood pressure and risk of type 2 diabetes. more efficiently,” Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the AHA, said in announcing the recommendation Wednesday.

The short duration or poor quality of sleep is associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis, which increases the chances of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke.

According to cardiologist Luciano Drager, a member of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology and who chairs the Brazilian Sleep Association, sleep disorders, such as deprivation and apnea, are greatly impacting people’s health and quality of life.

“They are developing problems with memory, cognition, performance at work, in addition to cardiometabolic consequences.”

He says that during the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to the increase in cases of mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits, there was a lot of damage to sleep health.

“People became very connected on social media, stayed on streaming platforms late, changing their sleep pattern and worsening their quality of life and health.”

All this, according to him, raised the importance of sleep to the same level as an adequate diet, physical activity, control of blood glucose and cholesterol, among others.

According to Drager, the cardiology and sleep societies will embrace the new AHA guideline and initiate campaigns and other preventive actions.

“We need to recognize sleep disorders earlier, put an end to the myth that sleep is a waste of time.”

He reminds us that at each stage of life, sleep disorders can have different causes. Among the elderly, for example, there is the impact of chronic diseases and the use of various medications that can influence sleep.

Already among the youngest, from the habit of staying late on social media to the use of stimulant substances.

“They are also expanding the recommendations for childhood. It is in sleep that the child develops the brain, consolidates memory, learning and plays a role in immunity. The sooner a healthy lifestyle is adopted, there is evidence that diseases are prevented. in the adult.”

According to AHA recommendations, for children up to five years old, the ideal sleep time is 10 to 16 hours a day; children aged 6 to 12 years need 9 to 12 hours of sleep; and teens ages 13 to 18 should get between 8 and 10 hours of sleep a night.

During sleep, the body repairs damaged cells and strengthens the immune system, which improves overall health.

The entity recommends that a way to sleep better is to get away from electronic devices before going to bed, set an alarm to warn you when you are going to bed and block the receipt of notifications during the night.

Despite recommending the removal of cell phones, the entity indicates the use of devices capable of monitoring sleep quality, such as watches, rings and cell phones themselves.

In addition to sleep, there was a change in the recommendation on cholesterol monitoring. Now, the guideline is to more closely monitor the non-HDL index, rather than total cholesterol. The higher this index, the greater the risk of cardiovascular problems.

Thus, each of the items generates points, which allow you to give an overall rating to people’s health and show how it can be improved.