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Adopt This Lazy Habit for Heart Health
This Week's Tips
Napping, sleeping in, going to bed early . . . we think of them as lazy indulgences. But your heart really wants you to do it.
In fact, getting an ideal amount of sleep could help keep plaques from forming in your coronary arteries. And that means less risk of heart disease and heart attacks. So sleep tight!
All Night Long
In a 5-year study of middle-aged adults, the more sleep people got, the lower their rate of arterial calcium deposits. Good news, because calcium deposits help form the plaques that can clog arteries. Because the study had only a handful of people that slept more than 8 hours a night, it's not clear if there is a cap to getting health benefits from extra sleep. And more research is needed to confirm the study results in general. But it all seems to add to the evidence that healthy sleep habits are good for your RealAge. Find out what the other important risk factors for heart disease are -- and which ones you might have.
Aids for the Sleep Starved
Besides being bad for your heart, sleep deprivation can hurt your health in a number of other ways. It can make you drowsy, grumpy, and more prone to accidents, and it may even encourage weight gain. So take steps to kick restless nights out of the bedroom with these easy tips:
- Get moving. These natural activities promote better sleep.
- Eat the right bedtime snacks. These foods may help make you drowsy.
- Unfurl your muscles. A light massage may help you sleep better and help lower your blood pressure.
- Set the mood for sleep. These bedroom do's and don'ts will help.
Feeling wide-eyed come bedtime? Take this sleep quiz to get personalized recommendations for sounder sleep.
RealAge Benefit:
Getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night can make your RealAge as much as 3 years younger.
Short sleep duration and incident coronary artery calcification. King, C. R. et al., Journal of the American Medical Association 2008 Dec 24;300(24):2859-2866.
