WOMEN who don’t get enough sleep are at higher risk of developing heart disease and heart-related problems than men with similar sleeping patterns, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of Warwick and University College London in the UK studied the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and sleep deprivation and found that short sleep is associated with higher cardiovascular risk and is different for men and women.

In a study of the sleep patterns and health of over 4,600 men and women between ages 35-55, researchers found that inflammatory markers varied significantly with sleep duration in women but not in men.

Levels of Interleuken-6, a marker related to coronary heart disease, were found to be significantly lower in women who reported sleeping eight hours instead of seven.

Levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein – a marker for cardiovascular morbidity – were also significantly higher in women who reported sleeping less than five hours a night, the study found.

"These findings add to the growing body of evidence which suggests that there is a non-linear relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and duration of sleep," said Michelle Miller, Associate Professor of Biochemical Medicine at Warwick Medical School and lead author of the study.

"Also, they support the idea that short sleep is associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk and that the association between sleep duration and cardiovascular risk factors is markedly different in men and women."

Dr Miller added, "Further prospective studies are required to ascertain causality but the results also are consistent with the idea that sleeping seven or eight hours per night appears to be optimal for health."

Source : AFP-Relaxnews