When it comes to sleep, we tend to focus on how much we’re getting each night, but it seems there’s also an ideal time to nod off, at least for heart health. According to a new study, the time you fall asleep may affect your risk for heart disease. Researchers say the sweet spot for lowering your risk of developing cardiovascular disease is a bedtime between 10 and 11pm.
The study tracked more than 88-thousand adults in the U.K. for around six years and found:
- Those who start snoozing from 11 to 11:59pm have a 12% greater risk for heart disease
- And it increases to 25% for those who fall asleep at midnight or later
- But going to bed too early isn’t much better, as a bedtime before 10pm is associated with a 24% higher risk.
- Even after taking factors including age, gender, sleep duration, body-mass index and blood pressure into account, falling asleep after midnight was still linked to the highest increased risk of heart disease.
But the real question? Why does it matter what time you drift off, as long as you get enough quality sleep? And it seems it all comes down to our body clock. “The body has a 24-hour internal clock, called circadian rhythm, that helps regulate physical and mental functioning,” explains study co-author David Plans, a neuroscientist and experimental psychologist. And while the study can’t prove that early or late bedtimes contribute to developing heart disease, he says the results suggest that they might disrupt the body clock, which can have negative consequences for heart health.
Source: NBC News