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Daytime Sleep Linked to Strokes

Posted on: Friday, 22 February 2008, 12:05 CST

A new U.S. study has found that the risk of stroke and heart attack is increased in seniors who catnap during the daytime.

Bernadette Boden-Albala of Columbia University in New York conducted the study of 2,153 adults with an average age of 73. She presented her findings at an American Stroke Association conference in New Orleans

"Even when we controlled for things like hypertension, diabetes, physical activity, obesity and socioeconomic status, we found that people who had significant daytime dozing were much more likely to end up with stroke," said Boden-Albala.

In the study, people were asked to rate the amount of times they nodded off in situations such as watching TV, after lunch, or while driving in traffic. About 44 percent reported no dozing, while 47 percent had some dozing and 9 percent reported “significant dozing.”

Boden-Albala found that the risk increased to 2.6 times as likely to have a stroke among those who nodded off occasionally during the day, while the risk increased to 4.5 times as likely in those who reported significant dozing.

"Those are significant numbers. We were surprised that the impact was that high for such a short period of time," Boden-Albala said.

Researchers say some of this is due to a lack of quality and quantity of sleep.

Some research notes that sleep apnea, a disorder which causes a person to stop breathing during sleep may account for an increased stroke risk. Daytime sleepiness could be caused by sleep apnea’s nighttime effects.

"Given what's known now, it's worth assessing patients for sleep problems," Dr Boden-Albala said.

"If patients are moderately or significantly dozing, physicians need to think about sending them for further evaluation. But the real question is: ‘What are we doing to our bodies?’ Sleepiness obviously puts us at risk of stroke."

Dr Heinrich Audebert, consultant stroke physician at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London told BBC News the findings seemed reasonable.

"Sleep apnoea is a risk factor for stroke and in Mediterranean countries the siesta is associated with a little bit of an increased daytime risk of stroke."

He said that higher blood pressure is experienced by those who have sleep apnea.

"What we really encourage is that all patients who have breaks in sleeping in the night should have sleep apnoea screening," Audebert said.

Each year, about 780,000 adults in the U.S. and around 150,000 people in the U.K. suffer a stroke.

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Columbia University

St Thomas' Hospital - London

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

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