Sleep matters: Duration, timing, quality and more may affect cardiovascular disease risk
College of Medicine – Tucson, Department of Psychiatry
Associate professor of psychiatry and director of the U of A Sleep and Health Research Program Michael Grandner, PhD, was the vice chair for the American Heart Association’s new scientific statement, “Multidimensional Sleep Health: Definitions and Implications for Cardiometabolic Health” released on April 14, 2025.
The AHA statement – published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes – describes multiple components of sleep health, such as sleep duration, continuity, timing, satisfaction, regularity and daytime functioning. The scientific statement also reviews the latest evidence on what is known about the relationship between sleep and various cardiometabolic health factors, including body fat, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, and how healthy sleep positively impacts physical health and mental well-being.
“Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, and suboptimal sleep raises the risk for cardiovascular disease, along with risk of cognitive decline, depression, obesity, as well as high blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels,” said chair of the scientific statement writing group Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, an associate professor of nutritional medicine in the Department of Medicine and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research, both at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. “However, there is increasing evidence that sleep health is about more than the number of hours you sleep each night.”