Sleep hours could cause heart disease

The amount of sleep a person gets could increase risk for heart disease, a recent study by a West Virginia University professor found. Anoop Shankar, associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine, examined 30,397 adults who participated in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey to see if there was a correlation between sleeping habits and heart disease. His study, published in the August journal issue of SLEEP, found sleeping fewer than five hours a night or more than nine hours a night could increase the risk of heart disease. "We asked a question: On an average how many hours did you sleep in 24-hour period?," Shankar said. "The adults answered that question and we then did a diagnostic on heart disease." They examined this association between heart disease and sleep to establish the percentage of people with heart disease and all cardiovascular diseases, such as angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke, he said.