Short-term sleep can take a toll on your heart

New Delhi, Dec 3: As per a new research, sleep loss can be a strong reason for various heart ailments and is capable of adversely affecting a person's heart function.

The study has further warned that people who are associated with jobs like medical services, fire and emergency and are forced to work 24-hour shifts with little opportunity to sleep are at a higher risk.

"For the first time, we have shown that short-term sleep deprivation in the context of 24-hour shifts can lead to a significant increase in cardiac contractility, blood pressure and heart rate," said study author Daniel Kuetting from University of Bonn in Germany.

For the study, Kuetting and colleagues recruited 20 healthy radiologists, including 19 men and one woman, with a mean age of 31.6 years.

Each of the study participants underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging with strain analysis before and after a 24-hour shift with an average of three hours of sleep.

Following short-term sleep deprivation, the participants showed significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate.