June 8, 2023 – Insomnia may result in an increased risk of stroke, based on a recent study. The risk increases with more symptoms, reminiscent of difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep or waking up too early, based on the study published within the journal neurology.
More than a 3rd of the country suffers from insomnia, the authors of the study found. They wanted to analyze the connection between the disorder and the occurrence of strokes.
People with five to eight insomnia symptoms had a 51 percent higher risk of stroke than people without insomnia, after taking other risk aspects into consideration, based on an announcement accompanying the study.
People with one to 4 symptoms had a 16 percent higher risk than people without symptoms.
“There are many therapies that can help people improve the quality of their sleep, so identifying which sleep problems lead to an increased risk of stroke may enable earlier treatment or behavioral therapies for people with sleep problems and potentially reduce their risk of stroke later in life,” the study said. Author and epidemiologist Wendemi Sawadogo, a researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, in an announcement.
Previous studies have shown similar associations between sleep disorders and stroke, CNN reported.
Poor sleep disrupts metabolism and blood pressure and causes inflammation that results in stroke, Phyllis Zee, MD, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, told CNN.
“Poor sleep can interfere with the natural drop in blood pressure that occurs during nighttime sleep and contribute to high blood pressure – a major risk factor for stroke and cardiovascular disease,” Zee said.