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A prospective cohort study of 20,827 Spanish adults found an association between daytime and nighttime sleep patterns and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), as published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Over a median follow-up of 15.1 years, a total of 163 incident atrial fibrillation cases were confirmed by medical record. Compared to individuals who took short daytime naps (less than 30 minutes a day), those in the study who took long naps (30 minutes a day or more) had a 62% higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10–2.39). Inadequate sleep at night (less than 6 or 8 hours) was also associated with increased AF risk (adjusted HR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.10–3.23) for individuals compared to those who slept 6 or 8 hours. Study subjects who took longer daytime naps and also had inadequate nighttime sleep had the highest risk of AF with a more than threefold increase (adjusted HR: 3.19; 95% CI: 1.30–7.79) compared to those who took no naps or short naps. Sleep data was self-reported on a questionnaire, and the median age of participants was 37.8 years.
Sleep habits: The authors say these findings about daytime naps and atrial fibrillation risk build on previous studies that identify an association between sleep duration and risk of cardiovascular events, which collectively could lead to recommendations for individual lifestyle modifications to reduce AF risk.
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