Late Nights Could Ruin Your Health!

Losing sleep? You might be slowly losing your life. Getting just one poor night's sleep (4 hours) can make your blood vessels less flexible, raising your risk of cardiovascular disease, says a new British study.

In a recent experiment, people slept normal hours one night, then stayed awake for most of the next night. Researchers tested the sleepers the following morning and found that their blood vessels were stiffer and their breathing was irregular.

While the reason for the link between poor sleep and heart health isn’t yet clear, researchers believe that a sleep-deprived brain directly signals your blood vessels to become stiff and unresponsive, says study author Shahrad Taheri, Ph.D. So frequently missing sleep may be enough to raise your risk of cardiovascular disease by making your heart and body work harder to overcome an out-of-whack vascular system.

What’s more, irregular breathing can further raise your risk of heart disease by causing sleep apnea, Dr. Taheri says.

While occasionally missing a night or two of perfect sleep isn’t enough to cause any problems—the study participants tested normal again after getting a full night’s rest—repeatedly pulling all-nighters could, says Dr. Taheri.

How late is too late? Researchers haven’t pegged an optimal number for heart health, but you should stick to 8 hours. Regularly logging that amount (or more) can reverse the genetic damage to your body’s immune system, damage-repair functions, and stress-reduction abilities that low sleep causes, finds a recent study from the University of Surrey.

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