Orlando， FL¬——每天充足的睡眠对心血管健康非常重要，睡觉时间的早晚也同样对心血管健康有着重要的影响。据2009-ACC（美国心脏病学学会）上提出的研究显示，相对于午夜以后才能睡觉的人来说，午夜之前睡觉的人动脉硬化的发生率明显减少——如早期动脉粥样硬化或动脉硬化。
睡眠对于心血管健康的重要性正在逐渐被证实，但睡觉时间的早晚是否对心脏健康有影响还有待进一步研究。这项研究诣在寻求更多的证据证明睡眠持续时间和睡觉时间的早晚对心血管病危险性的关系。
来自日本岐阜健康临床中心的医学博士Yu Misao说：“在现代社会中，人们承受着来自身体和精神上双重压力。关注饮食和锻炼的健康的生活习惯非常重要，但我认为是时候把高质量的睡眠提上日程了。现在已有多项关于睡眠（主要是睡眠持续时间）和疾病之间关系的研究，但是睡觉时间的早晚对心血管疾病危险因素和动脉硬化的影响仍然不清楚。”
这项研究选取了61岁以下的251名健康男性工人，他们每年检查血压，体重，BMI和腰围，收缩压和舒张压，代谢性指标如快速血糖检测，血红素A1c，血脂如甘油三酯、HDL-C和LDL-C。他们还进行baPWV（臂-踝脉搏波速率）检查来证明是否有动脉硬化。
另外，有关这些人每天的睡眠持续时间和睡觉时间的早晚也通过调查问卷获得。
在这项研究中，把人群作为一个整体进行研究，我们发现睡眠持续时间对收缩压和舒张压、BMI、腰围及血脂水平都有明显的影响。睡眠时间越长，这些数值就越低。
根据夜间睡眠时间长短把被调查者分成3组：不足6个小时的；6-7个小时；7个小时以上的。在每组中，夜间12点前睡觉的人测得baPWV值明显较12点以后睡觉的人要低，这些人的动脉负担较小。
Yu Misao博士继续说道：“这个研究并不能阐明为什么会出现这样的结果，但是我们推测，太晚睡觉会扰乱我们的生物钟，并对我们的身体产生有害的影响。我们应该告诉人们，不仅足够的睡眠对健康很重要，而且早睡也同样很重要，并且可以作为一种预防心血管疾病及其危险因素的方法。从预防医学的角度来看，我们应该根据生理需要来养成良好的睡眠习惯。”
注：ACC（美国心脏病学学会）影响卫生保健政策，代表了大多数心血管保健专家的意见，并通过教育、研究、推广、开发和应用的方式来解读标准和准则。ACC.09 是国际上最大的心血管学会议，各国心血管病专家在大会上分享了治疗和预防领域的新发现，同时也使ACC达到了致力于改进心血管医学的使命。
（陈维君 吕树铮 首都医科大学附属北京安贞医院）
英文原文
Burning The Midnight Oil Might Be Dangerous For Your Heart Health
Orlando， FL – Getting enough sleep each night is important for your cardiovascular health， but so is your bedtime. Men who went to bed before midnight had significantly less arterial stiffening – an early stage of atherosclerosis， or hardening of the arteries – than men who turned in after midnight， according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology’s 58th Annual Scientific Session.
The importance of sleep for cardiovascular health is increasingly being recognized， but whether early or late bedtimes also have an influence on heart health has not been explored. This study sought to shed more light on how duration of sleep and early versus late bedtimes might affect cardiovascular risk.
“In our modern society， we suffer from a lot of stress， both physically and mentally. A healthy lifestyle that focuses on diet and exercise is essential， but I believe that we have to add good quality sleep to this list， as well，” said Yu Misao， M.D.， PhD， Misao Health Clinic， Gifu， Japan. “There have been many studies about the relationship between sleep， mainly sleep duration， and occurrence of disease， but it remains unclear how bedtime affects cardiovascular risk factors and arterial stiffness.”
In this study， 251 healthy male workers younger than 61 years old had an annual check up which noted their blood pressure， body weight， body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference， systolic and diastolic blood pressures， metabolic measures including fasting blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c， and lipids， including triglyceride， HDL- and LDL-cholesterol. The men also had their arteries examined for evidence of arterial stiffening by means of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV).
In addition， information about the mens’ daily sleep， including sleep duration and their usual bedtime， was obtained by a questionnaire.
In the study population as a whole， sleep duration was significantly associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure， BMI， waist circumference and lipids， with more sleep hours linked to lower values for all of these factors.
The men were put into three groups according to the number of hours they reported sleeping at night: less than six hours， six to seven hours， and seven hours or more. In each of these groups， the men who reported going to bed before midnight had more relaxed arteries as shown by significantly lower baPWV levels， than the men who went to bed after midnight.
“Our study can’t tell us the reason for this， but we speculate that going to bed late somehow disturbs our habitual， biological sleep patterns， and this could cause deleterious changes to our bodies，” Misao said. “We should educate people about the importance， not only of getting enough sleep， but of going to bed early， as a possible way to prevent cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. From the point of view of preventive medicine， we should consider getting our sleep habits as close to what our bodies biologically demand as much as possible.”
The American College of Cardiology (www.acc.org) works to influence health care policy and represents the majority of board certified cardiovascular care specialists through education， research， promotion， and the development and application of standards and guidelines. ACC.09 is the largest cardiovascular meeting， bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention， while helping the ACC achieve its mission to address and improve issues in cardiovascular medicine.