Why Sleep Quality Matters for Heart & Brain Health

May 16, 2025

When it comes to sleep, quality may be just as important as quantity, says recent science report

When it comes to healthy sleep, it’s not just how long you are asleep that matters. Other factors, such as how long it takes to fall asleep, keeping a regular sleep schedule and the overall satisfaction with sleep, can all affect your heart and brain health, according to a a new American Heart Association scientific statement “Multidimensional Sleep Health: Definitions and Implications for Cardiometabolic Health published recently in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The report summarizes the latest evidence on the relationship between sleep and cardiometabolic health factors, such as body fat, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as how healthy sleep affects physical health and mental well-being.

“There is increasing evidence that sleep health is about more than the number of hours you sleep each night,” Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, chair of the statement’s writing group, and an associate professor of nutritional medicine in the department of medicine and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research, both at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

According to the report, no single component captures people’s sleep experiences or how their body responds to it. Other sleep components include:

• Sleep pattern – Not having a consistent sleep pattern has been linked to a higher risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, inflammation and blood pressure that doesn’t drop during the night. Greater consistency has been shown to lower the risk for cardiovascular death.
• Sleep-related daytime functioning, or how alert a person feels during the day, also affects heart health. Excessive daytime sleepiness has been linked to heart disease and stroke and related deaths.
• Sleep architecture – or the cycling between stages of light and deep sleep – may also play a role in heart health. Some studies suggest disruptions to sleep affect people     differently based on the cycle that gets disrupted.                                                        

Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Studies show that not getting enough increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, or AFib, a type of irregular heartbeat; cardiometabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that raise the risk for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke; and blood pressure that doesn’t decrease as much as it should during sleep. Getting too much sleep also has been linked to a higher risk for cardiometabolic syndrome, along with stiffened arteries, stroke or death from heart  disease or stroke.

“Some changes in sleep across the life course are natural,” St-Onge said. “However, individuals should not accept poor or worsening sleep as a ‘fact of life’ or unavoidable consequence of the aging process. If they note new difficulties falling or staying asleep, or excessive daytime sleepiness, they should discuss this with their doctor for further evaluation and potential treatment.”

St-Onge said people should pay close attention to how they are sleeping just as they do other aspects of health and well-being. The American Heart Association now includes sleep duration in its eight metrics for good heart and brain health.

America Heart Associations’s Life’s Essential 8 outlines a few easy steps you can take to live a healthier lifestyle.

• Eat Better: Aim for an overall healthy eating pattern that includes whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds, olive and canola oils.
  
  
• Be More Active: Adults should participate in 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. Walking is great for moderate levels of activity. Kids should have 60 minutes every day, including play and structured activities.
  
  
• Quit Tobacco: Traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., including about a third of all deaths from heart disease. Roughly 40% of U.S. children ages 3-11 are exposed to secondhand smoke. 

• Get Healthy Sleep: Getting a good night’s sleep every night is vital to cardiovascular health. Adults should aim for an average of 7-9 hours, and babies and kids need more depending on their age. Too little or too much sleep is associated with heart disease, studies show.
  
  
• Manage Weight: Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight has many benefits. Body mass index (BMI), a numerical value of your weight in relation to your height, is a useful gauge. Optimal BMI for most adults ranges from 18.5 to less than 25. You can calculate it online or consult a health care professional.
  
  
• Control Cholesterol: High levels of non-HDL, or “bad,” cholesterol can lead to heart disease. Your health care professional can consider non-HDL cholesterol as the preferred number to monitor, rather than total cholesterol, because it can be measured without fasting beforehand and is reliably calculated among all people.
  
  
• Manage Blood Sugar: Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose (or blood sugar) that our bodies use as energy. Over time, high levels of blood sugar can damage your heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. As part of testing, monitoring hemoglobin A1c can better reflect long-term control in people with diabetes or prediabetes.
  
  
• Manage Blood Pressure: Keeping your blood pressure within acceptable ranges can keep you healthier longer. Levels less than 120/80 mm Hg are optimal. High blood pressure is defined as 130-139 mm Hg systolic pressure (the top number in a reading) or 80-89 mm Hg diastolic pressure (bottom number).

If you believe you are not getting proper amount or quality of sleep, and it is affecting your heart and/or overall health, the Mason City Clinic Ear, Nose & Throat board certified physicians have the skills and experience to test, analyze and treat your sleep issues. To learn more, please call 641.494.5380 today or use our online form to schedule an appointment.