Improper sleep increases cardiovascular risk: Six bad habits to avoid

Sleeping incorrectly can negatively impact your cardiovascular health: "Wrong posture? Get up and go back to sleep!" You've probably heard this joke, and while it's a joke, there's some medical truth to it. A normal person spends about one-third of their day sleeping, but incorrect sleep patterns, duration, and quality can seriously affect your health, even causing severe damage to the heart, brain, and blood vessels.

Insufficient sleep: Staying up late is a common sleep pattern for many young people. While reading about the dangers of staying up late leading to sudden death, many continue working overtime or using their phones due to work pressure and lifestyle habits, especially on weekends, sometimes unknowingly staying up until dawn.

A 2019 study published in the *Journal of the American Heart Association* showed that people who sleep less than 6 hours a night have a 20% higher risk of heart disease compared to those who sleep 6-9 hours.

Excessive sleep: While insufficient sleep is harmful, does sleeping more reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease? Research shows that people who sleep more than 9 hours have a 34% higher risk of heart disease. Another article also shows that sleeping more than 9 hours increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 17%; sleeping more than 10 hours increases this risk to 41%. Therefore, sleeping excessively whenever possible is definitely not advisable.

Intermittent Sleep: Some people jokingly say, "Sleeping too much or too little is harmful, so what if I sleep intermittently?" Believe it or not, there is a group of people who do this: medical staff. While on duty, medical staff are often "promptly woken up" just as they fall asleep, and after dealing with patients, they go back to sleep. A study published in *Nature* shows that compared to those with good sleep quality, people who frequently wake up during sleep have a 34% increased risk of developing atherosclerotic plaques throughout their arteries. Atherosclerosis is the main culprit behind myocardial infarction and cardiovascular disease.

Sleeping with the Lights On: Sleeping with the lights or TV on may be a habit for some people. Many people, even when tired, are unwilling to go to bed for a proper sleep, just as a video says: "It's not that I'm not tired, I just want to wait a little longer, as for what I'm waiting for, I don't know." But while waiting, they end up falling asleep with the lights on. Researchers followed 43,722 women for approximately five years and found that those who slept with the lights or TV on had a 17% increased chance of gaining more than 5 kg. When you're constantly dieting and exercising to lose weight, a small action can undo all your efforts.

Nap longer than 1 hour: Many people believe that napping is beneficial to health, helping to lower blood pressure, enhance memory, boost immunity, eliminate fatigue, and restore energy. Many elderly people have a habit of napping.

In reality, whether napping is beneficial to health has not been supported by much data, and there is no definitive conclusion.

At the 2020 European Society of Cardiology Congress, Professor Pan Zhe and colleagues from Guangzhou Medical University presented the results of a survey. The survey analysis showed that for people who get enough sleep each night (more than 6 hours), napping for more than 1 hour a day increased the risk of all-cause mortality by 30% and the risk of cardiovascular disease by 34%; if the nap is less than 1 hour, it has no effect on the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, studies also show that naps, regardless of length, increase the risk of death by 19%, with a stronger association in women and the elderly.

As early as 2016, a US study indicated that naps exceeding 90 minutes increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and may trigger diabetes. A similar study in Japan showed that naps exceeding one hour increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 46%.

Some experiments suggest that prolonged naps cause the central nervous system to cause capillaries in the brain to close for too long, slowing down metabolic processes and leading to discomfort and fatigue upon waking. For insomniacs, naps reduce nighttime sleepiness, leading to increased anxiety and difficulty falling asleep.

Suggestions for afternoon naps:
1. If you don't have a habit of napping and get enough sleep at night, it's not recommended to develop one.

2. If you need to nap, the duration should not exceed one hour.

3. Avoid napping after a heavy meal or immediately after eating. It's recommended to wait at least half an hour after a meal before napping.

4. It's not recommended to sleep face down. Office workers who don't have access to a napping area can use a neck pillow to sleep on their back.

5. Don't stand up immediately after waking up, especially the elderly.

In short, sleep is not as simple as you might think. The true significance of sleep lies in the repair of bodily functions. During sleep, most of the body's systems are in anabolic state, which helps restore the immune, nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems, thereby maintaining various bodily functions. Therefore, everyone must value sleep to stay healthy.