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How is sleep duration detrimental to heart health?

How is sleep duration detrimental to heart health?

If you need another reason to get enough sleep, here it is: It can help your heart health.

The American Heart Association added sleep duration to its cardiovascular health checklist.

In addition to sleep, the new list retained the original categories: diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure.

Sleep duration was listed after researchers examined new scientific findings over the past decade that found that sleep plays an important role in heart health, according to Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, chief medical officer of the American Heart Association for prevention.

"People who do not get enough sleep are more likely to have things like obesity, hypertension and diabetes," Sanchez said.

What counts as healthy sleep?

Adults need to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night, however, people need quality sleep to reap the benefits, said critical lung care and sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate clinical professor at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

"If you keep waking up, it will prevent you from going into those deeper stages. This can lead to high blood pressure and increased blood sugar levels, which is linked to diabetes and obesity. "These conditions contribute to the reduction of heart health and increase the risk of developing heart failure," said Dasgupta.