Going to Bed Late Among the Causes of Premature Coronary Artery Disease

Seeking to uncover the role of quantity and quality of sleep in the frequency of cardiovascular diseases, researchers examined a cohort of 30,101 patients from the Khuzestan Comprehensive Health Study (KCHS) and observed that a late bedtime was significantly associated with incidence of premature coronary artery disease (CAD), highlighting a potential avenue for investigation of premature CAD causes. The study’s report was published in Archives of Iranian Medicine.

The investigators used information on the patients’ risk factors for cardiovascular disease, history of habits, physical activity, and sleep behavior to assess potential premature CAD causes. The participants also had blood pressure, anthropometric, and serum lipid and glucose profile measurements. Premature CAD was defined as a documented history of developing obstructive CAD before ages 45 and 55 in men and women, respectively.

In the total KCHS cohort, 7,613 participants had a late bed time reported and a total of 1,602 participants had premature CAD (5.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.1–5.6%). The prevalence of premature CAD adjusted for age and sex was 3.62 (range: 3.43–3.82) and 27.8 (range: 27.2–28.4), respectively. Late bedtime was independently associated with premature CAD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.136; 95% CI, 1.002–1.288; p = 0.046) after correcting for potential confounders, cementing the author’s theory that poor quality or quantity of sleep may be a cause of premature CAD.

The authors presented their findings as a validation of a significant association between a late bedtime and premature CAD, and suggested that future studies further examining the link between late bedtime and the premature development of coronary atherosclerosis.