Insomnia is never pleasant. Laying awake at night waiting for sleep, or falling asleep only to be awakened and then not be able to fall asleep again is both exhausting and frustrating.
And it’s unhealthy, too. According to the American Academy of Neurology, people who suffer from insomnia are at a greater risk of stroke and heart attack. Unfortunately, heart disease can often be completely invisible to the person who is suffering from it, but if this study is accurate, and insomnia symptoms might be revealing of a deeper issue, then there is now more visible proof for some of the cases of heart disease. This gives doctors a better warning sign that a problem may occur in the future.
To examine the issue, researchers looked at the lives of almost a half million people in China with an average age of 51 years old. None of the people involved in the study had a history of past stroke or heart disease when the study period began. There was then a screening to see if there had been any symptoms of insomnia that persisted for at least three days per week. About 11 percent of these people had symptoms of insomnia, and 2 percent reported that they had issues with paying attention during the day because of a lack of sleep.
After this data was collected, there was an observation period of ten years. Over 130,000 cases of stroke or heart attack were reported during that time. The individuals who reported three symptoms of insomnia were 18 percent more likely to suffer from a cardiac event than those individuals that had no symptoms. That’s an alarming number, and it presents an interesting dilemma: just what is the link between these things?
Unfortunately, the link between the two is not one hundred percent clear. It’s not certain whether existing heart issues leads to insomnia or if the insomnia can exacerbate heart disease. Either way, because insomnia is visible and heart disease usually isn’t, insomnia can be used as a warning sign to alert people that perhaps there’s more going on than just trouble sleeping.
If you or someone that you love suffers from chronic insomnia, seeing a doctor might be a good idea. Recovering from a stroke is a difficult process. Some people never fully recover from this event. Rather than improve the recovery process–which many brilliant researchers are working on–a better alternative would be to reduce the risk of having a stroke in the first place. That’s what this study is aimed at. By reducing symptoms, doctors hope that it can help reduce the chances that someone will have a stroke. And by pointing insomnia symptoms out to your physician, you can help them to see that you might be at a higher risk of stroke. They can help you to be more proactive in your heart health and start adopting behaviors that will lessen the chance that this might happen to you.
It might be a small step, but for many, it might be effective.
Leave a Reply