Some insomnia symptoms are associated with an increased risk of mortality in men, according to findings published online in Circulation. “Our research shows that among men who experience specific symptoms of insomnia, there is a modest increased risk in death from cardiovascular-related issues,” says Yanping Li, PhD, a research fellow in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and lead author of the paper, in a release.
Specifically, researchers report that difficulty falling sleep and nonrestorative sleep were both associated with a higher risk of mortality, particularly related to cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Researchers followed more than 23,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who self-reported insomnia symptoms for a period of 6 years. Beginning in 2004 through 2010, researchers documented 2,025 deaths using information from government and family sources. After adjusting for lifestyle factors, age, and other chronic conditions, researchers found that men who reported difficulty initiating sleep and nonrestorative sleep had a 55% and 32% increased risk of CVD-related mortality over the 6-year follow-up, respectively, when compared to men who did not report these insomnia-related symptoms.
