Sleeping and heart health are strongly linked, and more and more research is showing this.
Poor sleep may be a much bigger contributor to cardiovascular disease than most people realize.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, scientists analyzed data from nearly one million post-9/11 U.S. veterans.
What they found was troubling. Adults who had both insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea faced a significantly higher risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease than did those who had just one of the conditions.
Researchers call this combination comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea, or COMISA.
And it turned out to be one of the most concerning risk categories in the study.
Insomnia and OSA Often Occur Together
Doctors usually treat insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea as two completely separate sleep disorders.
Insomnia makes it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep. It can also present as difficulty getting back to sleep when one wakes in the middle of the night.
Sleep apnea causes repeated pauses in breathing during the night — when the airway becomes completely or partially obstructed.
Many people experience both problems at the same time.
When insomnia and sleep apnea overlap, the health effects can compound and become more serious.
Trying to treat only one sleep disorder while ignoring the other is a bit like trying to fill a bucket with sand — a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
Poor Sleep Harms the Heart
Sleep is not just rest for the brain. It is also a recovery period for the heart and blood vessels.
During healthy sleep, the cardiovascular system gets time to reset and repair. Your heart rate is at its slowest during sleep.
When sleep keeps getting interrupted — through frequent awakenings, short sleep duration or breathing pauses — that recovery time disappears.
Over time, the heart and blood vessels may struggle to maintain normal balance.
Sleep actually influences almost every system in the body.
Yet despite its importance, sleep is often treated as a minor lifestyle issue instead of a major health factor.
Researchers wanted to see if COMISA plays a role long before cardiovascular disease becomes severe.
The answer appears to be yes. Long-term sleep problems are not just annoying nighttime frustrations.
Over time, they place measurable strain on the cardiovascular system.
The researchers say sleep health should be evaluated just like other major cardiovascular risk factors are, such as family history, smoking, body weight, sodium in the diet and many others.
