Slept well? The fact that this question is about more than acute exhaustion in the morning has now been thoroughly researched. How we sleep has a direct impact on our health – even in the long term. For example, sleep affects the risk of a stroke. A new study has now investigated exactly how.
Some have difficulty falling asleep, others wake up frequently during the night, and still others snore. But no matter how the sleep is disturbed, the reduced sleep quality clearly increases the risk of a stroke. Researchers from Ireland have now come to this conclusion and were also able to show in their study that the risk of developing the cognitive disorder increases even more when several sleep disorders occur together.
course of the study
For their analysis, the scientists used data from 4,496 people from the international long-term study “Interstroke”. Participants in the study were patients who had suffered a first acute stroke. People who had not had a stroke served as controls. The average age was 62 years. At the beginning of the study, the participants provided information about their sleep symptoms via a questionnaire. To determine a possible link between sleep and acute stroke, the researchers used logistic regression, a common statistical technique.1 The researchers compared each symptom with the data of a person who did not have exactly this symptom – e.g. B. Snorers with non-snorers.
1799 study participants had suffered an ischemic stroke. This is characterized by the fact that tissue in the brain dies, which experts also call cerebral infarction. The cause is a blocked artery, which ensures that not enough blood and oxygen can get to the brain.2 439 study participants suffered a stroke due to an intracerebral hemorrhage. Such a bloody (hemorrhagic) stroke is an acute danger to life! It is triggered by bleeding into the brain tissue, e.g. B. because blood vessels suddenly burst due to arteriosclerosis. It is significantly less common than ischemic stroke (15 percent versus 80 percent of strokes).3
Also interesting: good sleep quality can significantly reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease
Relationship between sleep and risk of stroke
Analysis of the data revealed that people who slept too many or too few hours had an increased risk of stroke compared to those who slept more than five hours and less than nine hours. Less than five hours of sleep increased the risk three-fold compared to seven hours of sleep, and nine hours of sleep doubled. The risk was also three times higher in people with breathing pauses during sleep (sleep apnea).
Another risk factor: napping during the day. If they last longer than an hour, they increase the risk by 88 percent. Snorers have a 91 percent increased risk of stroke.
In the study, the following 9 sleep problems were associated with an increased risk of stroke
- Short sleep (less than five hours)
- Long sleep (more than nine hours)
- problems falling asleep
- problems staying asleep
- snoring
- snort
- Unplanned naps during the day
- Long naps during the day
- Breathing pauses (sleep apnea)
Anyone who suffers from six or more complaints has a fivefold increased risk
Another finding of the Irish study: A combination of several symptoms of poor sleep seems to increase the risk of a stroke. “Not only do our results suggest that single sleep problems can increase the risk of stroke, but that having more than five of these symptoms puts you five times more at risk of stroke than people who don’t have any sleep problems,” study author Christine McCarthy said in a press release.4
More articles about stroke
Limitations of the Study
While the study was able to suggest links between various sleep disorders and stroke, it was unable to prove that these were causal. In other words, further research is needed to determine whether the symptoms are also direct causes of the serious illness.
Another limiting point: The sleep problems were determined using questionnaires. This means that the scientists had to rely on the subjective information provided by the study participants. Accordingly, it could not be ensured that they remembered correctly and completely or even knew their complaints. In any case, the study and the press release do not indicate that the information was verified by official medical diagnoses.