Civic Center
For a healthy heart, get your Zzzzz's
The American Heart Association created a checklist for good heart health that it called Life's Simple 7. The list included:
Eat better;
Be more active;
Quit tobacco;
Manage weight;
Control cholesterol;
Manage blood sugar; and
Manage blood pressure.
Researchers at Columbia University had a problem with the Simple 7. After analyzing data from a study of 1900 participants, they determined that sleep had a significant impact on heart health; specifically, sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, sleep disorders, and sleep efficiency (the ratio of total sleep time to time in bed).
After the Columbia researchers published the results in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the AHA added "get better sleep" to their checklist and renamed it Life's Essential 8.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.122.025252
For most adults, 7-9 hours of sleep is considered healthy. How would you rate your sleep? If you think it could be better, let's talk about it and kick some ideas around.
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