Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease- Exercise, a Heart Healthy Diet, and the Right Amount of SLEEP

 

 

 

Article: Too Much, Too Little Sleep May Harm the Heart

We’ve all heard that proper diet and exercise is crucial to lowering our risk for heart disease. This study focused on another major factor that often doesn’t receive as much attention, sleep. With the American mentality of work hard, play hard it often seems that there isn’t much time left for sleep. In fact, it almost seems that individuals pride themselves on their ability to keep up despite minimal amounts of sleep. While these individuals may feel like they’re living life to its fullest, they are missing out on the major benefits of getting a good nights sleep.

With attempting to balance work, school, and some form of a social and healthy lifestyle I often find that sleep gets thrown by the wayside. Recently it’s become a personal goal of mine to try to get better quality sleep and more of it.

I found this article interesting because it discusses not only the importance of sleep as it relates to cardiovascular health, but the importance of the right amount of sleep.

 

According to the article, a study of 47,000 participants showed individuals who:

• got five or fewer hours of sleep a day had 50 percent more calcium in their arteries than those who slept seven hours a day.
• slept nine or more hours a day had at least 70 percent more calcium compared to those who slept seven hours.
• reported poor sleep quality had more than 20 percent more calcium than those who reported good sleep quality.

So, as with most things in life, sleep is good in moderation. It looks as though oversleeping may actually be more harmful to your heart than not getting enough sleep!