Heart disease: An extra 10 minutes of sleep each night can reduce the risk

• A new study examined how small lifestyle changes can affect heart health.
• The research team followed more than 50,000 people for about 8 years and tracked habits such as sleep, nutrition and exercise.
• At the end of the study, the researchers realized that even simple lifestyle changes in many areas are beneficial for heart health.
• Findings suggest that focusing on multiple, lifestyle changes may be more effective and sustainable than attempting a large change in one area.

Since heart disease is often influenced by modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, these factors are often among the first things health care providers target when heart health issues arise.

Since big lifestyle changes can be difficult to maintain, researchers wanted to determine whether small, common changes still increase heart disease risk.

Some of the modifiable factors include sleep, physical activity, and diet, which the researchers refer to as SPAN in their study.

While medications can help manage blood pressure and cholesterol, lifestyle changes are a key part of improving heart health.

However, making significant changes in eating habits or physical activity can be difficult. For example, going from light activity to daily intense exercise can feel overwhelming and hard to sustain.

With that in mind, researchers in a new study examined whether small changes in each SPAN category could reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events (MACE), including heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.

The average age of the participants was 63 years. The largest pool of participants, totaling over 53,000 people, was about 57% male and 43% female.

Participants wore devices to track sleep and physical activity. They also completed dietary questionnaires, which the scientists used to determine food scores.

Then, they analyzed how combinations of these three behaviors were associated with cardiovascular risk.

Researchers created a lifestyle score based on SPAN that ranges from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate healthier habits.

They found that as the score increased, the risk of MACE decreased steadily. For example, people with average SPAN scores had a 41% lower risk of MACE, while those with higher scores saw up to a 50% reduction in cardiovascular events.

The researchers also compared individual SPAN behaviors to MACE risk to see which combinations of SPAN behaviors reduced the risk more than others.

The best combination includes getting 8 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night, with 40 to 105 minutes of sleep. Moderate to strong activity Every day, and maintain high quality food. This combination had a 57% lower risk of MACE.

Scientists have also found that even small changes are beneficial. They found that getting about 10 extra minutes of sleep, 5 minutes of physical activity, and small improvements in diet quality—such as adding a quarter cup of vegetables—were associated with a 10% lower MACE risk.

Overall, the research shows that improving SPAN habits together may not only be more effective than focusing on just one at a time, but even small changes can add up across the board.

Christopher Berg, MD, a board-certified cardiologist at Memorial Care Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Beach Medical Center, spoke. Today’s medical news About the study.

Berg, who was not involved in the study, said the findings reinforce what many doctors already expect, but the evidence suggests something valuable in how small changes add up.

“What this study shows is that very modest lifestyle changes in many domains can significantly reduce risk,” Berg told us.

While a 10% risk reduction may seem modest for an individual, Berg emphasized its broader impact, saying that on a population level, the benefit is “significant.”

He also mentioned the importance of remembering that the study is observational.

“Patients were not randomized to study the effect of the intervention, but to describe the relationships and associations between variables and outcomes,” the cardiologists noted.

“Therefore, we cannot say with certainty that making these lifestyle changes will lead to a lower risk of MACE, but we do see an association of less MACE with better lifestyle habits,” Berg explained.

Krishna Bhagwat, MS, an Australia-based cardiothoracic surgeon endorsed by Doctify, also spoke. MNT About the study findings.

“The findings aren’t particularly surprising, because they reflect what we already know: Small healthy habits can add up over time,” said Bhagwat, who was not involved in the research.

“What’s interesting is that even modest changes, when combined, can make a meaningful difference. It reinforces that you don’t need a whole life to see the benefits.”

– Krishna Bhagawat, MS

Bhagwat also emphasized the importance of a 10% risk reduction at the population level.

“For an individual, this may seem trivial, but in larger groups it can translate into fewer heart attacks overall,” Bhagwat pointed out. “Importantly, these benefits are associated with relatively small lifestyle changes.”

He also pointed to the importance of making even small changes, stressing that “the key message is that small, sustainable changes are important.”

“People don’t need to change their lives overnight […] Starting with simple, realistic steps can still have significant health benefits over time,” Bhagwat advised.