Poor sleep habits are harmful to the heart, especially for black people

When was the last time you slept a full eight hours? If you are a black American, probabilities are you are losing sleep at an alarming rate.

According to data collected by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention43.5% of black adults reported sleeping lower than seven hours an evening, compared with 30.7% of white adults.

Losing regular, good-quality sleep can lead to – or worsen – a variety of health problems, lots of which disproportionately affect Black people. Cardiovascular health is one in all the most vital health problems for African Americans, which incorporates Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Cleveland Clinicroughly 47% of black adults have been diagnosed with heart problems compared to 36% of white adults, and a median of 59% of black adults have been diagnosed with hypertension. Black men are 70% more likely to suffer from heart failure than white men; Meanwhile, black women are 50% more likely to develop the disease.

As we prepare to have a good time one other American Heart Month in February, doctors and experts are urgently warning the public – and especially Black people – about the importance of fine sleep hygiene. Azizi Seixas, associate director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said: USA today: “Sleep is not like a bank account where if you take money out, you just put it back in and everything is fine.”

“We call it social jetlag,” added sleep expert Black, “and we’ve found that it can cause accelerated aging… You may feel good cognitively if you get a full night’s sleep. But you’ve driven a lot of miles, so to speak, and you can’t turn the odometer back. You just added miles you didn’t have to.”

Tara Robinson, who founded after a series of accidental heart attacks Black Heart Association from Texas and her husband told the newspaper that they learned firsthand how vital sleep may be.

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Describing the time she experienced a cardiac event almost a decade ago, she said: “I guess I didn’t know what sleep was. Coming out of it, I was always trying to figure out my next move. How to pay your bills? How to take care of your child? You are stuck in fight or flight.”

Race is not the only factor that influences the impact of sleep on the heart. The The CDC found it too that sleep doesn’t come easily to people of lower socioeconomic status.

Now, when Robinson advises others through his organization, he talks about the importance of getting a very good night’s sleep.

“How we sleep, how we deal with stress,” she said, “how we eat – all of this impacts our heart health.”