Sleep and Your Heart

You may have heard that sleep is independently linked with longevity. Failure to give your brain enough sleep to complete its “nightly housekeeping chores” has been correlated with cognitive dysfunction during the day and a potentially shortened lifespan. Studies suggest that for the brain it takes 7-8 hours on average to keep it healthy, and that most people are sleep deprived based on the estimate that 80% of the world’s population needs an alarm clock to wake up each morning. Now it looks like it’s not just the brain that needs enough sleep—but the heart, as well. A study that was just published (January 14, 2019 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology) has concluded that the minimum amount of sleep per night that is required to lower one’s risk for developing atherosclerosis (accumulation of fatty plaque deposits in arteries) is six hours.