People who have trouble sleeping more likely to suffer a stroke: study

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

People who have trouble sleeping - or kip too much - are more likely to suffer a stroke, warns new research.

Snoring almost doubles the risk while too little or too much shut-eye, snorting in your sleep, poor quality kip, taking long naps and the condition sleep apnea also increase the probability, according to the Irish-led study.

People who have five or more of the symptoms are five times more likely to suffer a stroke compared to people who don't have sleep problems, say scientists.

They explained that the study does not prove that sleep problems cause stroke, it only shows an association.

However, study author Dr. Christine McCarthy said: “Our results suggest that sleep problems should be an area of focus for stroke prevention.

"Not only do our results suggest that individual sleep problems may increase a person’s risk of stroke, but having more than five of these symptoms may lead to five times the risk of stroke compared to those who do not have any sleep problems."

The international study involved 4,496 people, including 2,243 people who had a stroke who were matched to 2,253 people who did not have a stroke. The average age of the participants was 62.

Participants were asked how many hours of shut-eye they got, if they napped, snored, snorted or suffered breathing problems during sleep.

The findings showed that people who slept for too many or too few hours were more likely to have a stroke than people who slept an average number of hours.

A total of 162 of those who had a stroke got less than five hours of sleep, compared to 43 of those who did not have a stroke.

And 151 of those who had a stroke got more than nine hours of sleep a night, compared to 84 of those who did not have a stroke.

The research team also found that people who got less than five hours of sleep were three times more likely to have a stroke than those who got seven hours of sleep on average.

And people who got more than nine hours of sleep were more than twice as likely to suffer a stroke than those who got seven hours a night.

People who took naps longer than one hour were 88 percent more likely to have a stroke than those who didn't, according to the findings published in the journal Neurology.

The research team also looked at breathing problems during sleep, including snoring, snorting and sleep apnoea.

People who snored were 91 percent more likely to have a stroke than those who did not and people who snorted were nearly three times more likely to have a stroke than those who didn't.

People with sleep apnea were nearly three times more likely to have a stroke than those who did not.

The researchers said that after adjusting for other factors that could affect the risk of stroke - such as smoking, exercise, depression and alcohol consumption - the results remained similar.

Dr. McCarthy, of the University of Galway, added: “With these results, doctors could have earlier conversations with people who are having sleep problems.

“Interventions to improve sleep may also reduce the risk of stroke and should be the subject of future research.”