Sleep and Risk for Heart Disease and Stroke

Getting healthy sleep was recognized in 2022 by the American Heart Association as a key health behavior of Life’s Essential 8 based on growing evidence of its impact on cardiovascular health. American Heart Association guidelines recommend that adults aged ≥20 years get on average 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, based on self-reported measures. However, many adults report getting inadequate sleep duration, a trend expected to worsen through 2050. For these reasons, the relationship between sleep, including its multidimensional components (eg, timing, efficiency, regularity, and architecture), and cardiovascular disease must be evaluated further. In this review, we summarize the current evidence on the association of multidimensional sleep with heart disease and stroke risk. In addition, we discuss the advantages and limitations of various sleep assessments from self-report to direct measurement via novel digital health technologies.