In a new study from Lund University and Uppsala University, researchers found a clear connection between how long a person sleeps and a number of biomarkers linked to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Previous research shows that too little sleep leads to an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
In many cases, researchers suspect that it is the disease that causes sleep disorders, but it may also be that a lack of, or too much, sleep contributes to a person becoming ill.
In the study, the team used data from 25 000 people in the 45–75 age group. An analysis was carried out of blood samples stored in a biobank from 2430 people who had answered questions about their sleep.
About 90% of the participants slept a normal duration, while 8% slept less than six hours per night and 4% slept more than nine hours.
With the help of tailor-made new technology, it is now possible to study many proteins in blood plasma at the same time. The study examined 243 different proteins linked to cardiometabolic diseases.
Five of the proteins stood out in the study—follistatin (FS), matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9), urokinase receptor (UPAR), adrenomedullin (ADM) and kidney injury molecule (KIM) – presenting a U-shaped association with sleep duration.
The levels of the biomarkers were high in people with short sleep duration, but decreased during normal sleep, increasing again in those with more than nine hours of sleep. The curve looks like a U when the data is displayed.
Previously, researchers found a link between the MMP9, FS, and UPAR proteins and inflammatory activity in the heart.
The biomarker KIM has been linked to heart function, while the protein ADM has been linked to sleep apnea and the risk of suffering a heart attack.
The results can explain how various cardio-metabolic diseases develop. The team says they need to confirm this in other longitudinal studies and check if the individuals develop a condition at repeated measurement points
If you care about sleep, please read studies about this common sleep issue may increase your heart death risk and common anxiety and sleep drugs may lead to addiction.
For more information about sleep and your health, please see recent studies about this sleep problem worsens heart disease, yet often untreated, and results showing that treating this sleep problem may reduce dementia risk.
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