10 - Why vitamin Sleep is essential for cardiometabolic health

Do you find yourself resisting going to be early? As a fellow night owl, I appreciate that late at night can feel like the time of day we get to just be, relax and unwind after meeting all the obligations of our day. Also, as an introvert it’s one of the few times I can just BE in my own company, or connect with my husband. But as your friendly neighbourhood nerd, by request, I have been diving into the research on sleep. It’s convincing enough to inspire even this stubborn introverted night owl to turn off the lights by 10. In future I will be looking into how to get better sleep and how to address common sleep issues, but for now let’s be clear on why enough sleep is the most vital thing we can do for our health.

Mental health

Insomnia contributes to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and lower resilience to stress. Mental health is VERY multifactorial and complex, so I don’t want to oversimplify or insult anyone going through this. For more on the contribution of nutrition to mental health, go here. However, it is key to know that sleep deprivation exacerbates any mental health vulnerabilities.

Obesity

When we are tired from inadequate sleep, we are more likely to consume more food to prop ourselves up (and make poorer choices) and do less exercise. To make matters worse, sleep deprivation alters our leptin and grehlin hormones that regulate the sensations of hunger and fullness. Our hormones become set to “hunger” and our appetite is artificially increased. Not only does this set us up for obesity, but the excess weight we gain from sleep deprivation favours visceral fat compared with a healthier weight distribution of those who get enough sleep. This means not only are we more likely to develop obesity, but it is more likely to be visceral obesity, the most unhealthy kind.

Insulin resistance

Ongoing sleep deprivation disrupts our circadian clock and increases blood glucose levels and insulin requirements. Our muscle cells can become less responsive to the insulin, contributing to insulin resistance. This then becomes a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes and increasing cardiovascular issues as a result.

Hypertension

Sleeping less than 5 hours per night increases the risk of hypertension, as during a healthy sleep our blood pressure tends to lower. When sleep is too short not only do we have higher night time blood pressure but this can carry over to our day time blood pressure. In one study, going to bed one hour earlier reduced blood pressure by 7/4 mmHG by the end of the 6 weeks. One of the mechanism of insomnia can be hyper-arousal and increased cortisol, which may underpin both the insomnia and the cardio-metabolic dysfunction.

Other issues

There is less established evidence but emerging indications that sleep less than 5 hours per night is also associated with poorer cholesterol results, increased coronary calcifications, with the risk increasing for each reduction in sleep duration.

So with the winter months ahead of us here in the South, it seems the perfect time to turn off Netflix, stop the scroll, leave unfinished tasks to another day. When that wave of sleep comes, don’t push through and wait for a second wind – catch it and snuggle down to the rest you need and deserve, and better cardio-metabolic health.

References

Cappuccio, F. P., & Miller, M. A. (2017). Sleep and cardio-metabolic disease. Retrieved from Current Cardiology Reports: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-017-0916-0

Covassin, N., Singh, P., McCrady-Spitzer, S. K., St Louis, E. K., Calvin, A. D., Levine, J. A., & Somers, V. K. (2022). Effects of experimental sleep restriction on energy intake, energy expenditure, and visceral obesity. Retrieved from Journal of the American College of Cardiology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.01.038

Johnson, K. A., Gordon, C. J., Chapman, J. L., Hoyos, C. M., Marshall, N. S., Miller, C. B., & Grunstein, R. R. (2021). The association of insomnia disorder characterised by objective short sleep duration with hypertension, diabetes and body mass index: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Retrieved from Sleep Medicine Reviews: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101456

Nobre, B., Rocha, I., Morin, C. M., & Meira e Crus, M. (2021). Insomnia and circadian misalignment: an underecplored interaction towards cardiometabolic risk. Retrieved from Sleep Science: https://dx.doi.org/10.5935%2F1984-0063.20200025