11 Minutes More Sleep Could Reduce Heart Attack Risk

If you think taking care of your health is an all-or-nothing game, we have some reassuring news: a paper published in February found that sleeping for five minutes longer, exercising for two minutes more, and eating an added half-portion of veggies a day may be enough to extend your lifespan.

And now, a study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology has shared that tiny changes to your lifestyle can significantly decrease your risk of heart attack, too.

Dr Nicholas Koemel, the study’s lead author, said: “Combining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have a surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health.

“This is very encouraging news because making a few small, combined changes is likely more achievable and sustainable for most people when compared with attempting major changes in a single behaviour”.

This research followed over 53,000 participants in the UK Biobank study over eight years. They looked at diet (self-reported), sleep, and exercise (both measured with wearable devices), and compared those scores to participants’ heart attack rates.

They found that the people least likely to suffer heart attacks followed these behaviours:

• Sleeping from eight to nine hours a night,
• Doing 42 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day,
• Having a “modest” diet quality score.

That was linked to a 57% lower risk of heart attack compared to the least healthy groups.

But a 10% risk reduction can be achieved with:

• 11 extra minutes of sleep,
• 4.5 added minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, and
• About 50g (a quarter of a US cup measurement) of additional vegetables.

Dr Koemel said that this study should help us remember the importance of tiny lifestyle tweaks.

“Making even modest shifts in our daily routines is likely to have cardiovascular benefits as well as create opportunities for further changes in the long run,” he shared.

“I would encourage people not to overlook the importance of making a small change or two to your daily routine, no matter how small they may seem.”

And the study’s lead author, Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, added, “We plan to build on these findings to develop new digital tools that support people in making positive lifestyle changes and establish sustained healthy habits.

“This will involve working closely with community members to make sure the tools are easy to use and can address the barriers we all face in making tweaks to our day-to-day routines.”