Self-Reported Sleep Duration, Napping, and Incident Heart Failure: Prospective Associations in the British Regional Heart Study.

Abstract

ObjectivesTo examine the associations between self‐reported nighttime sleep duration and daytime sleep and incident heart failure (HF) in men with and without preexisting cardiovascular disease (CVD).DesignPopulation‐based prospective study.SettingGeneral practices in 24 British towns.ParticipantsMen aged 60–79 without prevalent HF followed for 9 years (N = 3,723).MeasurementsInformation on incident HF cases was obtained from primary care records. Assessment of sleep was based on self‐reported sleep duration at night and daytime napping.ResultsSelf‐reported short nighttime sleep duration and daytime sleep of longer than 1 hour were associated with preexisting CVD, breathlessness, depression, poor health, physical inactivity, and manual social class. In all men, self‐reported daytime sleep of longer than 1 hour duration was associated with significantly greater risk of HF after adjustment for potential confounders (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.06–2.71) than in those who reported no daytime napping. Self‐reported nighttime sleep duration was not associated with HF risk except in men with preexisting CVD (<6 hours: aHR = 2.91, 95% CI = 1.31–6.45; 6 hours: aHR = 1.89, 95% CI = 0.89–4.03; 8 hours: aHR = 1.29, 95% CI = 0.61–2.71; ≥9 hours: aHR = 1.80, 905% CI = 0.71–4.61 vs nighttime sleep of 7 hours). Snoring was not associated with HF risk.ConclusionSelf‐reported daytime napping of longer than 1 hour is associated with greater risk of HF in older men. Self‐reported short sleep (<6 hours) in men with CVD is associated with particularly high risk of developing HF.