Sleep gives the heart its most important recovery period. In this NightOwling lesson, circadian health expert and medical scientist Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., discusses how quality rest supports cardiovascular function by reducing heart rate, blood pressure, and strain on the circulatory system.
Dr. Pendergrast explains how disrupted or shortened sleep can interfere with these natural recovery cycles, leading to inflammation and greater long-term cardiovascular risk.
This lesson highlights why consistent, restorative sleep isn’t just about feeling rested — it’s an essential factor in maintaining a resilient, healthy heart.
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So what about other important parts of
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the body? What about for instance our
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heart? Well, as we would expect during
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sleep, our heart is resting. So we see
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that our heart rate or the amount of
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beats that our heart has in a minute
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decreases. We also see that our blood
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pressure, so the amount of pressure
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that's feeling being experienced in the
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blood vessels decreases. And what this
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really means is that the heart is having
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its own system recovery time. And as we
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would expect when we're not sleeping
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properly or when we're not sleeping
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enough, we see an inflammation level
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increase in the blood vessels of the
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heart. But we also just see that it it
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there's a generally increased level of
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risk for heart disease. And when we
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measure this in individuals who have
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poor levels of sleep, we see that
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sleeping under 6 hours chronically
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increases risk of heart disease by up to
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20%.
