Sleep Disorders in Relation to Coronary Heart Disease

ABSTRACT. In a cross–sectional study of 5419 Finnish adult men, a higher prevalence of diagnosed myocardial infarction was found among those who slept more than 9 hours, whilst those sleeping less than 6 hours per night had more symptomatic coronary heart disease (CHD). This relationship held after controlling hy multivariate analysis for age, sleep quality, use of sleeping pills and tranquillizers, smoking, alcohol use, Type A score, neuroticism, use of cardiovascular drugs and history of hypertension. The cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology of sleep is reviewed and the relationship of some specific sleep disorders to CHD is discussed.