Erratic Sleep Puts Heart Health at Risk – Especially in Men
6/11/2025
Stay on a good sleep schedule for your best body and mind during Men’s Health Month
TUCSON, AZ (June 11, 2025) – We’ve all experienced the tiredness and lack of clarity that come after a sleepless night, but a recent study by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology Foundation found something else: Sleep schedule inconsistency is also a risk factor for heart disease. That’s why it’s so important to establish a regular pattern for going to bed and waking up.
Sleep apnea – sleep-disordered breathing – is a very common culprit when it comes to sleep loss. Men are two to three times more likely to suffer from this condition than women, and risk increases with age and excess weight.
The two kinds of sleep apnea include obstructive sleep apnea, in which your airway partially or totally collapses during sleep. In central sleep apnea (much rarer) receptors in the brain do not send a signal to the respiratory muscles to initiate a breath.
Both types of apnea are treatable with positive pressure ventilation, usually a C-PAP machine.
Untreated sleep disordered breathing may lead to many comorbid conditions, including hypertension, increased risk for heart failure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cognitive impairment, and depression.
According to the study, people with the most irregular sleep duration or timing had more than twice the risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared with people with the most regular sleep patterns. Healthcare providers are now likely to emphasize sufficient sleep as a heart health prevention action on top of physical activity and healthy diet - and The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep for people aged 18 to 64. Those 65 or older tend to need less, while children and teens need more.
No matter your age, your body performs a number of vital functions during sleep, including repairing tissue, fighting off infection, and processing memories of experiences from your day. Not sleeping for enough hours – or experiencing poor-quality sleep – is associated with higher blood pressure, dysregulated blood lipids, and insulin resistance that can lead to diabetes.
Insufficient sleep can affect your body in other ways, including:
- Compromised immune functioning. If you have sleep problems, your body may produce fewer antibodies which work to stave off illness – so you’re more likely to get sick.
- Unbalanced impulse control and appetite hormones. This can lead to overeating and obesity.
- Decreased mental functioning, especially the kind you depend on for problem solving, reasoning, organizing, planning and following through on plans.
- Learning issues, specifically encoding new information, consolidating and absorbing that information, making new connections, and remembering and retrieving what you learn.
Your physician can help diagnose whether you could benefit from medication or behavioral therapy or if you may need a thorough sleep study. If you need help finding a primary care or internal medicine physician, visit https://www.nwalliedphysicians.com/family-medicine-care or https://www.nwalliedphysicians.com/internal-medicine-care. To learn more about how the Sleep Center of Oro Valley Hospital can help, visit https://www.healthiertucson.com/sleep-care.
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