Study Links Poor Sleep to PTSD after Heart Attack

Experts have long speculated on the association between poor sleep and heart diseases. Shedding light on the topic, a new study conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center reveals that those who have poor sleep following a heart attack display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A previous study conducted in 2012 showed that symptoms of PTSD after a heart attack are very common. Published in PLOS ONE, it revealed that 1 in 8 people who survive a cardiac event suffer with PTSD, and these people are twice more likely to have another cardiac event or die within one to three years.

In the current study, researchers analyzed 200 patients who had survived a heart attack within previous months in order to prove the link between sleep and PTSD. These patients were seeking medical assistance from the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

The results revealed that PTSD symptoms among heart attack patients were associated with a greater loss of sleep in the past month.

Greater PTSD symptoms after a cardiac event caused bad sleep quality, reduced sleep duration, increase in sleep disturbance, need of sleeping medication, and drowsiness during the day time due to insufficient sleep at night.

Among the patients, it was mostly females who had poor sleep after surviving a cardiac event, and they were more likely to have higher BMIs and severe symptoms of depression.

The researchers hypothesize that disturbed sleep is a strong characteristic of the link between heart attack-induced PTSD and sleep.

They also state that dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is associated with both PTSD and disrupted sleep, may represent a common mechanism underlying the association. The ANS is responsible for regulating involuntary bodily functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestive processes.

The study was published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.