2017 Volume 63 Issue 6 Pages 435-442
Sleep is an important resting period, especially for the cardiovascular system, which has to work persistently. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative sleep disturbances can lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD). An inappropriate sleep duration, which leads to quantitative sleep impairments, and insomnia and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), which result in quantitative/qualitative sleep impairments, are widely recognized to affect the incidence of CVD. Patients with CVD generally sleep less than the general population and frequently have sleep disorders, such as insomnia or SDB, which have adverse prognostic effects. Thus, sleep plays an important role in the development and progression of CVD. In this manuscript, we discuss the physiological changes in hemodynamics seen during sleep and the relationship between sleep and CVD from the point of view of primary and secondary prevention.
