Good sleep – rest that lasts long enough, is of good quality, and restores you – has been described as being “essential” for good heart health, though it’s far from the only factor.

Obstructive sleep apnoea, which affects people’s breathing at night, has been associated with a greater risk of hypertension and even stroke. Something as simple as nighttime light exposure might weaken the key organ, too.

Per a five-year study funded by the US National Institutes of Health, meanwhile, it seems one sleep pattern might be a “novel risk factor for CVD [cardiovascular disease], independent of traditional CVD risk factors and sleep quantity and/or quality”.

Sleep regularity matters

This paper asked people aged between 45 and 84 to wear a wrist actigraph, which tracked their activity levels, on their non-dominant arm for a week. They also tracked their wake-up and sleep times in a diary.

Then, over the next five years, researchers looked at who got heart diseases or conditions and who didn’t. They were also given questionnaires about their sleep quality, insomnia, and daytime fatigue, and were given a polysomnography, or “sleep study”, for one night.

A sleep study tracks your physical functions, like breathing, while you’re asleep. It can be used to spot conditions like obstructive sleep apnoea.

During the five years following those tests, researchers were given follow-up exams and were also rung every nine months to a year to see whether they’d developed hearth health issues.

When these results were compared, it seemed participants with the most “irregular” sleep patterns, whose bedtime changed by more than 90 minutes from night to night over a week, faced roughly double the risk of heart health issues compared to those with the most regular routines.

This link seemed to be stronger for minority populations, especially Black participants.

In case you needed any more convincing, another 2024 paper named sleep regularity as a “stronger predictor of mortality” than even sleep duration.

Improving your sleep pattern may help

An NIH article about this study reads, “Luckily the study offered good news, too”.

Researchers also found that improving sleep patterns could decrease the risk of heart issues over time. That could mean going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day and getting enough sleep to begin with (seven to nine hours).

These are part of a series of studies that suggest our body clock (Circadian rhythm), instead of just the length and quality of our kip, might be key to true rest and health.

Of course, good sleep is only one factor that can help to protect your heart. The American Heart Association (AHA) actually only added sleep to its list of tips for better health in 2022, taking the suggestions from a “Simple 7” to the new “Essential 8”.

Dr Nour Makarem previously told the American Heart Association (AHA), “Greater adherence to all Life’s Essential 8 metrics and improving your cardiovascular health can slow down your body’s ageing process and have a lot of benefits down the line.

“Reduced biologic ageing is not just associated with lower risk of chronic disease, such as heart disease; it is also associated with longer life and lower risk of death”.

The full list of the Essential 8 rules is:

Eat better, Be more active, Quit tobacco if you smoke, Get healthy sleep, Manage your weight, Control your cholesterol intake, Manage your blood sugar, Manage your blood pressure.