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Sleepiness and Stroke Risk
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خواب آلودي و افزايش ايست مغزي
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Excessive
daytime drowsiness in older adults may predict a significantly
increased risk of stroke, said researchers reporting data on Thursday
at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans.
Most
people have, from time to time, unintentionally dozed off on the couch
watching television or reading a book or even stopped in traffic while
driving. But persistent drowsiness during the day usually signals a
chronic sleep deficit, and bigger problems.
The new study found that people who suffered from "significant
dozing
"
— those who almost always fell asleep involuntarily during the day —
were 4.5 times more likely to have a stroke than people in the "no
dozing" group.
The
association between sleepiness and stroke was dose-dependent: the
sleepier the person, the higher the risk of stroke. People in the "some
dozing" group, who sometimes, but not always, fell asleep while
watching TV or while sitting quietly after lunch, had a 2.6 higher risk
of stroke than their more alert peers.
The
study tracked 2,153 participants, average age 73, as part of the
ongoing Northern Manhattan Study on stroke, led by Columbia University
researchers. The data showed not only an increase in stroke risk with
excessive daytime sleepiness, but also an increased risk of heart
attack and
vascular
death: compared with well-rested people, moderately sleepy people had a
1.6 times higher risk; for severely sleepy people, the risk was 2.6
times greater.
One
of the limitations of [our sleepiness scale] is that we're not really
able to differentiate what type of sleep disturbances these people were
having." While the scale indicates that people are sleepy during the
day and therefore not resting well at night, it doesn't say why. In
terms of stroke and other vascular risks, says Boden-Albala, "The
question really is, Is it sleep apnea or is it the physiological
consequence of not getting enough sleep?"
Dozing /v/=
to sleep lightly for a short time
Vascular/adj/
=
relating to the tubes through which liquids flow in the bodies of animals or in plants
