Study: Insomnia Symptoms Increase Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Insomnia, specifically the difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, and non-restorative sleep, was associated with an increased risk of future heart attack and stroke, according to the results of a recent study.

While insomnia symptoms have been associated with cardio-cerebral risk, results of previous studies have been inconsistent. For this reason, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 15 studies with a total of 160,867 participants to examine the association in more detail.
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The researchers defined insomnia symptoms as difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and non-restorative sleep. The main outcomes were cardiovascular disease, including acute myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, or a combination of events.

During follow-up periods that ranged from 3 to 29.6 years, 11,702 adverse events occurred. Significant, positive associations between difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, and non-restorative sleep and risk of cardio-cerebral vascular events were observed (relative risks of 1.27, 1.11, and 1.18, respectively).

“Our meta-analysis demonstrated that insomnia symptoms of difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep and non-restorative sleep were associated with an increased risk of future cardio-cerebral vascular events,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

He Q, Zhang P, Li G, Dai H, Shi J. The association between insomnia symptoms and risk of cardio-cerebral vascular events: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies [published online March 30, 2017]. Eur J Prev Cardiol. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317702043.