Insomnia: From strokes to heart attacks – the 4 ways the sleep disorder can be deadly
INSOMNIA plagues up to one in ten Brits at any given time, research shows.
And the sleep disorder, which causes people to stay awake for hours into the night, is linked with deadly complications.
Insomnia is usually broken down into three main types - acute, chronic, and transient.
Transient insomnia lasts less than one week, and is typically caused by something like stress, while acute insomnia usually lingers for a few weeks and is triggered by a serious event, such as bereavement.
Chronic insomnia is less common and is when someone has difficulty sleeping at least three times a week, for between one and three months.
Around a third of adults in Western countries experience sleep problems at least once a week, with up to ten per cent fulfilling the criteria for insomnia disorder, says.
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The dangers of living with insomnia have been shown in research time and time again.
Over time, a lack of sleep can make it hard for people to lead healthy lives, due to having less motivation to eat enough nutritious food or exercise.
But it also appears to cause changes in the physiology of the body, too, such as by raising blood pressure and blood sugar levels…
Heart problems
Insomnia has been linked with the development of a heart problem.
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People with a genetic predisposition toward insomnia are at higher risk of coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke, according to a study published by the American Heart Association journal Circulation in 2019.
And another Chinese study published in journal Neurology found people with all three symptoms of insomnia were 18 per cent more likely to have a stroke or heart disease than those with no symptoms.
The symptoms the 487,000 patients were asked about were trouble falling or staying asleep, waking up too early or poor focus during the day due to poor sleep.
The risks don’t stop there, as a study published in April 2022 showed that half of those who have already had a heart attack have insomnia.
And this worsened the odds of having another heart related event moving forward.
The study looked at 1,068 patients an average of 16 months after a heart attack and/or a procedure to open blocked arteries.
Those who reported insomnia since their life-threatening hospital stint were between 40 and 60 per cent more likely to have another one, compared to those who did not struggle with sleep.
Stroke
Failing to get enough kip can also increase the odds of stroke, as described above.
Scientists from McMaster University, Canada, monitored the health of 116,632 adults for eight years after quizzing them on their sleep.
During that time, 4,381 died and a further 4,365 suffered a major cardiovascular problem, such as a heart attack or stroke.
Sleeping for less than six hours a day increased the risk by nine per cent, the 2018 findings showed.
However, as other studies have shown, too much sleep is risky too, with the study showing nine to ten hours of sleep increased the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 17 per cent.
High blood pressure
High blood pressure (hypertension) is also known as a “silent killer” because it has no symptoms.
In 2015, researchers studied 200 chronic insomniacs, comparing their sleep and blood pressure with 100 people without the condition.
People with chronic insomnia who took longer than 14 minutes to fall asleep during a daytime nap had three times the risk of high blood pressure, results published in Hypertension said.
High blood pressure in itself can lead to deadly problems like stroke or heart attack, and therefore may explain these risks for insomniacs.
Type 2 diabetes
Researchers at Bristol University found people who have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep had higher blood sugar levels than people who rarely had sleep issues.
This could play a direct role in the development of type 2 diabetes, they said, based on the study of more than 336,999 UK adults, published in April 2022.
An estimated 27,000 adults in the UK with insomnia could be free from diabetes if their sleeping condition was addressed, the study claimed.
Type 2 diabetes requires lifelong management. Without effective treatment, the risk of complications becomes higher.
These include heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and serious problems with the eyes and nerves.
Diabetes UK has previously found that 500 people living with diabetes (all types) die prematurely every week in England and Wales.
When to see a doctor
There are a number of sleep must-dos, including to stop using your phone at least an hour before bed time, make your bedroom cool and wake up at the same time every morning.
However, for people with serious forms of insomnia, it’s not that simple.
A pharmacist can help find sleep aids for those with short term insomnia.
But if you’ve been having a problem for months, you should get specialist care, starting with seeing your GP.
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Treatment from insomnia rarely involves sleeping pills, which can simply mask the problem.
Instead, it's typically focused on education around sleep and therapy to reduce anxiety around sleep and slowly increase hours of rest over a long period of time.