Archive · 20 Sep 2025
Study: Lack of Sleep May Increase Heart Disease Risk
Imagine your body is like a car.
Sleep is like the engine's oil.
If you don't get enough sleep, the engine (your heart) might start to wear out faster.
Researchers looked at young, healthy men and found that not sleeping enough for just a few nights can make your body release things that make it easier for your heart to get sick.
They saw that the amount of these 'bad' things in the blood went up when the men didn't sleep well.
Even exercise didn't fully cancel out the effects of not sleeping enough on these things that can damage your heart.
So, getting enough sleep is like taking good care of your car's engine to help it last longer!
Study suggests poor sleep may elevate heart disease risk.
Researchers analyzed 16 healthy young men.
Participants experienced controlled sleep in a lab setting.
Sleep deprivation increased levels of inflammation-linked proteins.
Physical exercise generated a slightly different response post-sleep deprivation.
- Who
- Researchers from Uppsala University
- What
- Study on sleep deprivation's effect on heart disease risk.
- When
- During two sessions in a sleep laboratory.
- Where
- Uppsala University in Sweden
- Why
- To investigate the link between poor sleep and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Participants
- 16 healthy young men
- Sleep Study Location
- Sleep laboratory
- Sleep Duration - Normal Session
- Normal amount for three nights
- Sleep Duration - Sleep-Deprived Session
- About four hours for three nights
- Key Findings
- Inflammation-related proteins increased with sleep deprivation
- Published In
- Biomarker Research journal