Scientists in Europe have said that research into the links between sleep and heart health often relies on foggy recollections or unreliable sleep diaries. Now, by attaching wrist-worn accelerometer devices to more than 88,000 people, they have been able more accurately to monitor sleep patterns and say they could have found an optimal bedtime to keep hearts healthy.
Going to sleep between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease in comparison with earlier or later bedtimes, according to a study published [November 9] in the European Heart Journal — Digital Health.
“We can’t help what we’ve evolved to be. We’ve evolved to be daytime creatures … that don’t live at night,” study author David Plans, the head of research at Huma, a British health-care technology company, told The Washington Post.
Plans said the coronavirus pandemic had probably impacted people’s sleeping habits, with more of us waking up later, working from home and therefore not leaving our homes to commute or expend energy — and then having trouble falling asleep at night. “It’s a self-perpetuating cycle,” he said. Fixing sleep patterns also has “enormous” benefits to mental health disorders, he added.
