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Many people around the world suffer through a medical condition called congestive heart failure (CHF). CHF is a chronic progressive condition that affects the pumping ability of heart muscle in individuals who are affected by it.
Heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood around the body. It has four chambers. The upper half of the heart has two chambers, the right and the left atria; similarly the lower half of the heart also has two chambers, the right and the left ventricles.
The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood from the body, and the left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs.
The right ventricle pumps the deoxygenated blood to lungs for oxygenation. The left ventricle pumps the oxygenated blood to body’s organs and tissues.
CHF develops when ventricles cannot pump enough blood volume to meet the body’s demands. Eventually, blood and other fluids can backup and cause congestion inside, lungs, abdomen, liver, and the lower body.
As the condition progresses, patients experience difficulty in breathing, fluid retention in lower extremities, abdomen and other vital organs.
CHF could be life threatening. CHF may result from other health conditions that directly affect the cardiovascular system, e.g. hypertension, coronary artery disease, valvular conditions, diabetes, thyroid disease, obesity, chronic lung disease, severe infections and allergic reactions.
Researchers suggest that life style modifications e.g. avoiding or quitting smoking, maintaining a well-balanced diet, exercise and weight control, can play a vital role in lowering the risk of CHF or at least delaying its onset.
Recently researchers conducted studies aimed to explore the relationship between sleep timings and congestive heart failure.
Prospective cohort studies were conducted and 4765 subjects were observed during the studies.
[The word cohort means a group of people. Cohort studies are a type of medical research in which large group of people are observed over a long period of time, to investigate the causes of disease and to establish link between risk factors and health outcomes. These studies are either forward looking (prospective) or backward looking (retrospective). ‘Prospective’ studies are planned in advance and carried out over a future period of time.]
During the mean follow-up period of 11 years researchers observed that, 519 cases of CHF (10.9%) occurred.
Sleep timings including bedtime and wake-up time on weekdays and weekends were assessed based on self- reported Sleep Habits Questionnaire.
Researchers observed that during the week-days, participants who slept at >12:00AM or between 11:01PM to 12:00AM had a higher risk of CHF, when compared with those who slept at 10:01PM to 11:00PM.
Researchers further analyzed after observing sleep habits among the subgroups of participants, that people with 6 to 8 hours sleep duration were also at higher risk of CHF.
Furthermore wake-up time at >8:00AM on week days was associated with a higher risk of incident of CHF compared with wake-up time at ≤ 6:00AM. However, there was no relationship between sleep timings on weekends and CHF.
Conclusions drawn from the studies are that delayed sleep timings on week days may increase the risk of CHF, especially in individuals with 6-8 hours’ sleep duration.
Researchers further suggest that findings of the studies indicate that a bed time at 10:00PM to 11:00PM may be most suitable for individuals to reduce the risk of CHF.
