Need a Reason to Sleep In?

I love vacations and holidays. They offer the perfect opportunity for my sleep-deprived body to catch up on the z’s. Now I have another reason to sleep in during my holiday break…it’s good for my heart.

Yes, that’s right. Even one extra hour of sleep appears to lower the risk of developing calcium deposits in the coronary arteries. These deposits are linked to heart disease, and according to Diane Lauderdale whose study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “It’s a very early marker of future risk.”

Lauderdale’s study included 495 people aged 35 to 47. They wore sophisticated wrist bands that ultimately allowed the researchers to detect individual sleep patterns. Before and after the study, CT scans were used to assess the build-up of calcium inside the arteries. After the five year period, they discovered that:

• 27 percent of those sleeping less than five hours a night developed artery calcification
• 11 percent of those sleeping five to seven hours developed artery calcification
• Only 6 percent of those sleeping more than seven hours a night developed artery calcification

The benefits of sleep even extend beyond the build-up of calcium deposits. Not getting enough sleep has been linked to weight gain, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Sleep isn’t a miracle cure, but it does appear to lower your risk of developing these health conditions.

Researchers aren’t certain why sleep lowers your risk of heart disease. It could be related to the fact that blood pressure tends to drop during sleep, so those who sleep longer could have lower blood pressure. It may also be related to reduced exposure to the stress hormone, cortisol, which is decreased during sleep.

Regardless of the reason, the benefits are clear. Don’t feel guilty…go ahead, sleep in.

Sleep: it does a body good.