Definition of Sleep Health
The definition of healthy sleep depends on several factors, such as duration and how many times a person awakens during the night. The quality of sleep is subjective and also includes sleep satisfaction, how much time a person spends in bed compared to sleep time and alertness after sleeping…Read more
Explore Healthy Sleep research in the following databases:
PubMed Trip Cochrane*
*The Cochrane database requires users to enter the search term manually. Enter “sleep health”
Research Spotlight
The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. This section summarizes a sampling of five studies – providing just a taste of the available research.
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- Catching Up on Sleep on Weekends Associated With 20% Lower Risk of Heart Disease
A study presented at the 2024 European Society of Cardiology meeting examined data from 90,903 adults in the UK Biobank project, a database holding medical and lifestyle records of 500,000 people in the UK. Of these, 19,816 met the criteria for being sleep deprived. Over a follow-up period of 14 years, the researchers found that the people who had the most extra sleep during the weekends were 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the least amount of weekend sleep. The lowered risk of heart disease was even more pronounced for people who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.
Access this study on sleep health - Weighted Blankets Help with Insomnia
A 2020 study from Swedish researchers found that people with depression and other mental health issues slept much better through the night when using a weighted blanket. At the end of the trial, 42% of those that slept with an 18-pound blanket scored so low on the Insomnia Severity Index to be considered in remission from their sleep troubles, compared with 3.6% of the control group. The weighted blankets didn’t have a significant effect on total sleep time, but led to a significant decrease in waking after sleep, less daytime sleepiness and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Access this study on sleep health - Artificial Light at Night Linked to Mood Disorders in Teens
A large 2020 study from the NIH (10,123 US teens) is the first to show that exposure to outdoor, artificial light at night negatively impacts teens’ mental health. Teens exposed to higher levels of nighttime light are more likely to have a mood disorder (including anxiety and bipolar disorder and phobias). This adds to the evidence that disruptions to circadian rhythms contribute to certain mental disorders. The findings also show that teenagers who belong to racial/ethnic minority groups or who come from lower-income families are more likely to live in areas with high levels of outdoor light at night, so are more at risk.
Access this study on sleep health - Poor Sleep Increases Risk for Heart Disease, Stroke & Atherosclerosis
A major 2020 study (1,600 participants) from the University of California Berkeley explains why disrupted nightly sleep and clogged arteries are pathologically intertwined. It’s the first study to show that fragmented sleep is associated with a unique pathway—chronic circulating inflammation throughout the bloodstream—which, in turn, is linked to higher amounts of plaques in coronary arteries that can result in fatal heart disease.
Access this study on sleep health - Study: Sleeping with Even the Dimmest Light Raises Blood Sugar and Heart Rate
A new study from Northwestern University found that sleeping in even the dimmest light for one night (such as leaving the TV on or exposure to streetlights through a window) significantly impaired cardiometabolic function: increasing nighttime heart rate and next-morning insulin resistance. The researchers concluded that even when your eyes are closed, your brain knows that lights are on, with dim light activating the sympathetic nervous system and disturbing circadian rhythms.
Access this study on sleep health - Just One Night of Bad Sleep Harms Your Wellbeing–At Six Nights Toll Is Severe
A 2021 study (2,000 US adults) found that just one night of less than six hours of sleep significantly hurts mental and physical wellbeing, and as the number of consecutive days of sleep loss increase, the severity of emotional and physical issues (body aches, gastrointestinal issues and respiratory problems) become severe. Problems spiked on day three and plateaued until day six, when mental and physical health significantly deteriorated.
Access this study on sleep health
- Catching Up on Sleep on Weekends Associated With 20% Lower Risk of Heart Disease
Studies-in-Progress/Clinical Trials Underway
A clinical trial is any research study that assigns people to health-related interventions to evaluate the outcomes. “Interventions” include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, preventive care, etc.
- ClinicalTrials.gov: explore trials underway in the U.S.
- World Health Organization: explore trials happening across the globe. When you reach WHO’s search page, please type in “sleep health.”
Access all studies currently available for Healthy Sleep in these databases:
*The Cochrane database requires users to enter the search term manually. Enter “sleep health”
