Consistent sleep schedules may improve recovery from heart failure, according to a study led by Oregon Health & Science University.
The study, published in JACC Advances, also warns that even moderately irregular sleep doubles the risk of experiencing another clinical event within six months, which can lead to a repeat visit to the emergency room, hospitalization, or even death.
To find these results, researchers studied 32 patients who had been hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure at OHSU Hospital and Hillsboro Medical Center between September 2022 and October 2023. For one week after hospital discharge, participants used sleep diaries to record their nighttime sleep, morning awakening, and daytime nap timing. Participants were then classified as regular sleepers or moderately irregular sleepers based on their sleep patterns.
Thus, the study found that, after hospital discharge, 21 participants experienced a clinical event over the course of six months, and of that group, 13 were classified as moderately irregular sleepers, compared to eight classified as having a regular sleep schedule. Therefore, they point out that, statistically, those who slept irregularly had more than double the risk of experiencing an event over the six-month period.
"When we sleep and rest, our blood pressure and heart rate decrease compared to daytime levels," explains Brooke Shafer, research assistant professor in the Sleep, Chronobiology & Health Laboratory in the OHSU College of Nursing. "However, variability in sleep schedule can disrupt the mechanisms that regulate the cardiovascular system. Irregular sleep can contribute to adverse outcomes, especially in people who already have heart failure," she adds.
In this regard, the researchers conclude that "improving sleep regularity may be a low-cost therapeutic approach to mitigate adverse events in adults with heart failure." They also point out that the next step would be to expand the research to a larger cohort of participants and see if improving sleep regularity reduces the risk of another clinical event.
