Sleep And Your Heart Health

Sleep duration is now considered an essential component for ideal heart and brain health.

Life's Essential 8™ cardiovascular health score replaces Life's Simple 7TM, according to a new Presidential Advisory, Life's Essential 8 Updating and Enhancing the American Heart Association's Construct on Cardiovascular Health, published in Circulation.

Other updates to the measures of optimal cardiovascular health, now for anyone ages 2 and older, include a new guide to assess diet; accounting for exposure to secondhand smoke and vaping; using non HDL cholesterol instead of total cholesterol to measure blood lipids; and expanding the blood sugar measure to include hemoglobin A1c, a key measure to assess Type 2 diabetes risk.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S. and globally. According to the Association's 2022 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update, approximately 121.5 million people in the U.S.have high blood pressure, 100 million have obesity, more than 28 million people have Type 2 diabetes, and only 1 in 4 adults reported achieving the physical activity and exercise recommended in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition.

Various research studies over the past two decades indicate more than 80% of all cardiovascular events may be prevented by healthy lifestyle and management of known cardiovascular risk factors.

The Association first defined the 7 metrics for cardiovascular health in 2010 to identify the specific health behaviors and health factors that drive optimal heart and brain health. Brain health in relation to cardiovascular health was defined in a 2017 American Heart Association Presidential Advisory. It was further acknowledged as an important component of optimal cardiovascular health in the Association's January 2021 Scientific Statement on the mind-heart-body connection.