Everyone’s lives are extremely busy and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule that works for you and your routine can be difficult. Some people are night owls and like to stay up late and others work best when they wake up early. This all depends on your circadian rhythm and when your body rests the best. Keeping when you go to bed and when you wake up consistent, is essential for your body to obtain the best quality sleep. There are certain times that people need to go to bed to enable their body to function efficiently and properly.
The Golden Hour
This is incredibly important for those concerned with the health of their heart. A recent study stated that going to bed between 10:00pm and 11:00pm is associated with improved heart health. There has been plenty of research done about sleep duration and cardiovascular disease but the connection between the time you sleep, and your risk of heart disease is still unfamiliar territory. However, a recent UK study decided to tackle this problem and has investigated the concept by surveying and monitoring people about their nighttime routines and their heart health.
Researchers selected a group of over 88,000 individuals made up of 58% women and 42% men who were aged forty-three to seventy-nine. Participants were surveyed at the beginning and the end of the 6-year study to monitor the development of heart disease based on when participants went to sleep. The participants were split into four groups: asleep before 10pm, asleep between 10-11pm, asleep between 11-12pm, and asleep after midnight. After gathering all the results, researchers accommodated for the extenuating factors of many participants to ensure the outcome was as accurate as possible. They looked at factors like blood pressure and cholesterol levels, diabetes, smoking status, and many more.
Overall, the results of the study concluded that going to bed between 10:00pm and 10:59pm is the best for your heart health. It is specifically this time frame that works so well as other times earlier and later than ten to eleven o’clock didn’t have the same effect. Those who went to bed between ten and eleven o’clock had the lowest heart problems of all the bedtime groups. The study revealed that 3.6% of participants developed cardiovascular disease and the majority of those who developed the disease all went to bed either before 10:00pm or after 10:59 pm.
The participants who went to bed before 10pm had a twenty-four percent raised risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who went to bed between 10pm and 10:59pm. Those who went to sleep between 11:00pm and 11:59pm had a twelve percent increased risk and people who went to sleep at midnight or later had a 25% increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who went to between 10pm and 10:59pm. If you are worried about your heart health, then switching your bedtime to between 10pm and 10:59pm might be in your best interest.
For Women with Heart Risks
Of the men and women that were participants in the study, women were much more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than men. Women who went to bed either before ten o’clock or after eleven o’clock were much more at risk. In contrast, men’s risk of cardiovascular disease only increased when they went to bed before ten o’clock at night and not if they went to bed after eleven o’clock. According to doctors conducting the study, the reason for this separation might be due to a reaction difference in disruptions in the circadian rhythm between men and women. It also could be due to post-menopause in some older women.
If you suffer from heart problems or are worried about potential cardiovascular disease, paying attention to when you go to bed might be your solution. For women in particular, going to bed between ten and eleven at night could aid you in your journey to a healthier heart. This could be a fantastic, low budget way to lower heart disease risks. For people who are looking to have a healthier heart, this might turn out to be the magic bedtime for you.
Reference: European Society of Cardiology
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