A growing body of research shows getting little or poor sleep doesn't just make people feel tired the next day – it places them at higher risk for heart attacks and early death, along with cognitive decline, dementia, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, depression and other chronic health conditions.
"There's lots of stuff that happens during sleep," said Dr. Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. "When your body doesn't have enough time to do the things it needs to do, it won't do them in an optimal way."
While researchers are still investigating how suboptimal sleep affects the mechanisms linked to cardiovascular health, Grandner said much is known about other functions that occur during the major stages of sleep.
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