Sleep and its effects on our health
If you have trouble sleeping, or generally irregular sleep increases your risk for a so-called metabolic syndrome. You can even be affected by this risk, if you are actually convinced to get enough sleep.
In a recent study by the Harvard Medical School, it was found that irregular sleep times and different sleep amounts from night to night, increase the risk for a metabolic syndrome that describes a combination of hypertension, abdominal obesity, lipid metabolic disorder and insulin resistance. The results of the study were published in the English journal “Diabetes Care”.
Metabolic syndrome increases risk for heart disease
Particularly problematic it is when people every night at different times going to bed (for example, at 23 o’clock in a night and two o’clock the next night), or strongly different periods of sleep per night have (for example, seven hours of sleep in a night, and ten hours of sleep the other night). By such a disturbed sleep, the risk of developing a metabolic syndrome, which in turn increases the risk for heart disease. Each one hour increased variability in the duration of sleep of a Person from night to night was associated with a 27 percent higher likelihood of developing a metabolic syndrome. Each one hour increased variability of the sleep time was associated with a 23 percent higher risk.
For the study 2.003 people were examined
In the current study 2.003 people took part, which is part of a multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. They wore devices to monitor your sleep for a week, in addition, they filled out questionnaires about their sleep habits. The researchers analysed values for other metabolic risk factors such as a large waist circumference, high blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar, high Triglyceride levels and low HDL. If several of these conditions occur together, increase seizures, the risk of a Person for heart disease, Diabetes, and stroke.
These people are particularly at risk
The Participants were monitored for six years as a medical and those with an irregular sleep to the beginning of the study developed in the course of the follow-up is more of a metabolic syndrome. African-Americans, depressed people, smokers and shift workers tended to be in the study more likely to a irregular sleep, reports the researchers. The health consequences are likely to be due to the fact that the biological clock is disturbed. Many studies show that almost every metabolic process has a circadian rhythm, and irregular sleep is a main source of the circadian disorders may help explain the authors of the current study. An irregular sleep schedule can also behavior rhythms more desync, such as, for example, the Timing of the meals, which leads to further health consequences.
How can we protect ourselves?
You try to go every day at the same time to bed and Wake up. Avoid drastic Changes between your sleep schedule on weekdays and weekends. It is important, throughout the week a regular sleep schedule. People in shifts, because the Affected in some nights and other nights may not have a regular sleep rhythm. But even if you go to sleep for days on different times, you should at least try to every day get the same amount of sleep, the authors advise. To maintain your health, should not be used to vary the amount of time you sleep from day to day, for more than 120 minutes. The time to go to bed at night, should not differ than 90 minutes. (as)
