Sleep disorders and cerebrovascular disease: the long and winding road

A human being spends (or at least should spend) around a third of their life asleep. During normal sleep, physiological changes occur in the neurological, metabolic and cardiovascular systems, and these serve to maintain good health during waking hours [1]. Some specific diseases arise only during sleep, while others are most frequently identified, and most susceptible to aggravation, at night. The lifestyle imposed by our contemporary societies is not only associated with obesity and a diabetes epidemic but also with a massively increased prevalence of chronic sleep deprivation and sleep disorders, with an estimated one billion people suffering from sleep apnoea worldwide [2]. Insomnia and sleep disordered breathing are now two of the most common chronic diseases capable of aggravating the natural history of cardio-metabolic diseases. The association between stroke and OSA cerebrovascular disease