If you regularly wake up and go to bed at different times, you could be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to new research in the\u00a0Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health<\/a><\/em>, sleep regularity, or how often you stick to the same sleeping and waking schedule, appears to be a stronger predictor of major cardiovascular events than sleep duration.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It is the first study of its kind to look at the effects of both sleep duration and sleep regularity on\u00a0cardiovascular disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The authors found that the risk of heart attack, stroke, and\u00a0heart failure<\/a>\u00a0all increased significantly in people with\u00a0irregular sleep patterns<\/a>, even if they got the recommended number of hours of sleep for their age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Conversely, individuals who adhered most strongly to a regular\u00a0sleep and wake schedule<\/a>\u00a0had a lower risk of major cardiovascular events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSleep irregularity refers to frequently changing sleep schedules, like going to bed and waking up at different times each day, which can disrupt the body and negatively impact health. This research emphasizes the importance of prioritizing sleep regularity in public health guidelines and clinical care to support cardiovascular health,\u201d\u00a0Jean-Philippe Chaput, PhD,<\/a>\u00a0a senior scientist at the Children\u2019s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and first author of the research, told Healthline.<\/p>\n The large study included more than 72,000 individuals between the ages of 40 and 79 with no history of major cardiovascular events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All participants were part of the\u00a0UK Biobank cohort<\/a>, a biomedical database that includes de-identified data from half a million individuals in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sleep is complex, so researchers attempted to control for a wide variety of factors that could affect the study\u2019s outcomes, including age, sex, ethnicity, history of cardiovascular disease, and mental health. They also included important aspects of lifestyle that could\u00a0affect sleep quality<\/a>, such as self-reported\u00a0sleep problems<\/a>, whether or not the individual worked odd hours (night shifts), and even screen time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another strength of the study is that it did not rely on self-reported sleep data. Participants utilized\u00a0activity trackers<\/a>\u00a0for seven days to record their sleep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Based on the recorded sleep data, participants were given a \u201cSleep Regularity Index\u201d (SRI) score; lower scores indicate irregular sleep patterns. Individuals in the cohort were further stratified according to their SRI score into three groups:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The study found that irregular sleepers had a 26% increased risk of major cardiovascular events, and moderate irregular sleepers had a modest increase of 8%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The next question for researchers was whether or not getting sufficient sleep could offset the risk of irregular sleep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unfortunately, they found that even getting the recommended number of hours wasn\u2019t enough to reduce risk for irregular sleepers, but it did have an effect on those in the moderately irregular group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhile both\u00a0adequate sleep<\/a>\u00a0duration and regular sleep patterns are important, our findings show that meeting sleep duration recommendations alone does not eliminate the increased MACE risk for those with irregular sleep schedules,\u201d said Chaput.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In fact, regular sleep patterns were actually found to be protective against cardiovascular outcomes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A minimum SRI score of 77.1 was associated with a 15% reduction in risk, with even greater benefit occurring with more regular sleep: an SRI of 80.8 yielded an 18% reduction.<\/p>\n While research has tended to focus on sleep duration, sleep regularity has consistently been linked to a host of negative health outcomes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A 2023 study published in\u00a0Sleep<\/em><\/a>\u00a0found that sleep regularity was a stronger predictor of overall mortality risk than sleep duration. Participants with higher SRI scores had as much as a 48% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those with the lowest SRI scores.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Andrew J. K. Phillips, MD,<\/a>\u00a0a sleep scientist and associate professor at the Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health, was the senior author of that study.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He told Healthline that this novel research on cardiovascular outcomes is consistent with his own research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere is a strong emerging body of evidence from not only my group but many research groups around the world showing that irregular sleep patterns are bad for our health. What we are seeing is that sleep regularity is not just a predictor of one area of health, but rather it seems to touch on a wide range of health outcomes, from mortality to diabetes to mental health,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Phillips also authored a\u00a02017 study Trusted Source<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that found that irregular sleeping was associated with poorer academic performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIrregular sleep patterns likely lead to disruption of the body\u2019s network of circadian (24-hour) clocks. These clocks regulate the timing of all kinds of physiological functions throughout the body, including cell metabolism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Getting on a regular sleep schedule is within reach but may take some adjustments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe beauty of this study is that its findings are immediately actionable. The very best way to keep a\u00a0consistent sleep schedule<\/a>\u00a0is to wake up at or near the same time every day,\u201d\u00a0Scott Kutscher, MD,<\/a>\u00a0a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and sleep medicine at Stanford Medicine, told Healthline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kutscher recommended helpful tips including:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEven if your sleep patterns are highly irregular \u2014 say a shift worker \u2014 think about creating as much overlap in your sleep schedules as possible,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAim to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. If you struggle with consistency, start by gradually adjusting your sleep and wake times in small increments until you establish a stable routine,\u201d said Chaput.<\/p>\n In a study of more than 72,000 people, individuals who had irregular sleep schedules (getting up and going to bed at different times every day) had a higher risk of major cardiovascular event outcomes, such as heart attack and stroke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/naturalblaze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Irregular-Sleep-Wake-Cycles.jpg\")
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Higher risk of cardiovascular event among irregular sleepers<\/h4>\n
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Dangers of irregular sleep-wake cycles<\/h4>\n
How to establish a regular sleep schedule<\/h4>\n
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