Sleep Duration Affects Levels of Inflammatory Markers in Women
A study in the
July 1 issue of the journal SLEEP demonstrates that levels of
inflammatory markers varied significantly with self-reported sleep
duration in women but not men.
The study
reports that hs-CRP, a nonspecific marker of acute-phase inflammatory
response, is predictive of future cardiovascular morbidity, and the
relationship of IL-6 to coronary heart disease is similar to that of
CRP.
Results indicate
that participants of both sexes sleeping five hours or less had a
poorer health status and lifestyle profile. This was particularly
evident in males. Men sleeping five hours or less were more likely to
be in the lowest employment grade, to be unmarried, to have a higher
body mass index and waist circumference, to have lower mental and
physical health scores, to smoke and have a higher diastolic blood
pressure. Women were more likely to be unmarried, have lower physical
health scores, to smoke and have higher systolic blood pressure. Men
and women sleeping nine hours or more were also more likely to have
decreased physical health scores.
According to the
authors, these findings add to the growing body of evidence which
suggests that there is a non-linear relationship between
cardiovascular risk factors and duration of sleep. Furthermore, they
support the idea that short sleep is associated with an increase in
cardiovascular risk and that the association between sleep duration
and cardiovascular risk is markedly different in men and women.
Further prospective studies are required to ascertain causality but
the results also are consistent with the idea that sleeping seven or
eight hours per night appears to be optimal for health.