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A regular bedtime is not just for children. A new study on sleep patterns suggests that a regular bedtime and wake time are just as important for heart and metabolic health in the elderly.
In a study of 1,978 older adults, researchers at Duke Health and the Duke Clinical Research Institute found that people with irregular sleep patterns weighed more, had higher blood sugar, higher blood pressure, and years that those who slept and woke up at the same hours each day.
Irregular sleepers were also more likely to report depression and stress than regular sleepers, both of whom are related to heart health, according to the researchers.
African-Americans had the most irregular sleep patterns compared to white, Sino-US or Hispanic participants, the results of the study showed.
The results show an association – but not a cause-and-effect relationship – between regular sleep and heart and metabolic health, according to the researchers.
"From our study, we can not conclude that irregular sleep causes health risks, or if health conditions affect sleep," said Jessica Lunsford-Avery, Ph.D., assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "Maybe all these things are mutually reinforcing."
The data suggest that monitoring regular sleep patterns may help identify individuals at risk for illness and where health disparities may impact specific groups, such as African-Americans, she noted.
"Heart disease and diabetes are extremely common in the United States, they are extremely expensive and are also the leading causes of death in this country," she said. "To the extent that we can predict individuals at risk for these diseases, we may be able to prevent or delay their onset."
For the study, participants used devices to track sleep schedules, so researchers could see if subtle changes were occurring – going to bed at 10:10 pm. instead of the usual 22 hours – were related to the health of the participants.
The participants in the study were between 54 and 93 years old. People with sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, have not been included in the study, she noted.
The study also tracked participants' sleep duration and whether a person had been early or had been a night owl. According to these studies, people with hypertension tended to sleep longer and people with obesity tended to stay up later, according to the study.
Of the three measures, regularity was best for predicting the risk of heart and metabolic disease in a person, the researchers found.
As might be expected, the irregular sleepers experienced more sleepiness during the day and were less active, perhaps because they were tired, said Lunsford-Avery.
The study was published in the journal Scientific reports
Source: Duke University Medical Center
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