| Are Your Sleep Habits Hurting Your Heart?
Want to protect your heart and lower your cholesterol -- starting tonight? You can! Just log about seven hours of sleep. While you snooze, your body repairs and restores itself; when you don’t get enough shut-eye, however, shifts in your body chemistry can predispose you to elevated cholesterol and heart disease, and may even be life-threatening.
Lack of sleep may contribute to heart disease in a number of ways, including by raising total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and lowering good HDL cholesterol. Researchers at Columbia University found that teenage girls who slept for shorter durations were more likely to be diagnosed with high cholesterol in young adulthood, compared with teens who got more sleep. Why this happens seems to come from a combination of factors. In an article published in 2010 in the journal Sleep, the scientists conjectured that sleep deprivation could cause elevated cholesterol by increasing appetite and consumption of saturated fats, decreasing a person’s motivation to be active and amping up stress, which triggers the release of fats into the blood. If you’re not getting enough sleep and are worried about your rising cholesterol levels, first try to figure out what’s keeping you up. Do you have sleep apnea or severe snoring? Are you suffering from arthritis or muscle aches that make you toss and turn or wake you up at night? Are you losing sleep over stress and worry? Talk with your doctor to find ways to ease these problems. A good start is regular physical exercise early in the day. Then adopt smart sleep habits: Don’t watch TV or use your computer for an hour before trying to fall asleep; head for bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning; and make sure your room is quiet and dark, and your bed is comfortable. Then you can make progress in your fight to maintain a healthy cholesterol level by improving your diet and talking with your doctor about using cholesterol-lowering medications, if you need them. | 
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