(Kyla Russell/ CNN News) — It’s no secret that sleep is important to your overall health, but a lack of sleep could have substantial effects on your heart, a new study shows. The researchers said people with insomnia are more likely to have a heart attack.
Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in the US, the researchers wrote in their report, noting that 10% to 15% of people in the US struggle with it.
The meta-analysis of previously published research, published Friday in the journal Clinical Cardiology, suggests that the potential association between insomnia and heart attack risk is strongest in women.
Dr. Martha Gulati, director of prevention at the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute, said that most of her patients are women and that insomnia is a noted risk factor for women who have had any form of ischemic heart disease.
“Insomnia is actually quite common. We see it probably in 1 in 10 patients in the United States,” said Gulati, who was not involved in the new research. “It is my impression that almost everyone experiences insomnia at some point in their life. The estimate is that 1 in 2 adults experience it at some point in their life, maybe in the short term because of stressful moments.” (…)