Short night-time sleep linked with nearly doubled risk of clogged leg arteries

Sleeping less than five hours a night is associated with a 74% raised likelihood of developing peripheral artery disease (PAD) compared with seven to eight hours. That’s the finding of a study published in European Heart Journal.

This study suggests that sleeping for seven to eight hours a night is a good habit for lowering the risk of peripheral artery disease.

The study included more than 650,000 participants and was conducted in two parts. First, the researchers analysed the associations of sleep duration and daytime napping with the risk of peripheral artery disease. In the second part, the investigators used genetic data to perform naturally randomised controlled trials - called Mendelian randomisation - to examine causality of the associations.

Taken together, the strongest evidence was for short sleep, where the relationship with peripheral artery disease went both ways. In an observational analysis of 53,416 adults, sleeping less than five hours a night was associated with a nearly doubled risk of peripheral artery disease compared with seven to eight hours. In the causal studies, short sleep was associated with an increased risk of peripheral artery disease and, in addition, peripheral artery disease was associated with an increased likelihood of short sleep.

The authors concluded that although more research is needed on how to interrupt the bidirectional link between short sleep and peripheral artery disease, Lifestyle changes help people get more sleep, such as being physically active. All this may lower the risk of developing peripheral artery disease. For patients with peripheral artery disease, optimising pain management could enable them to have a good night’s sleep.”

Reference:

Short night-time sleep linked with nearly doubled risk of clogged leg arteries; European Heart Journal, DOI: 10.1093/ehjopen/oead008