People
who work more than 60 hours a week and miss out on sleep are far more likely to
have a heart attack, new research claims.
The
study by Japanese researchers and experts from the Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS
Trust in London finds that the combination of long hours and lack of sleep
could raise blood pressure and heart rate and trigger a heart attack.
Published
in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the research involved hundreds of
Japanese men, some who had suffered heart attacks, and some who had not.
The
men who had a heart attack worked significantly longer and slept less than
those who had not.
This
was a progressive increase – men working more than 60 hours a week had double
the risk of heart attack compared with men work 40 hours or less.
Having
a night’s sleep of five or fewer hours for just two nights a week doubled or
even tripled the risk of a heart attack, it is claimed.
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However,
other experts claim that much more study needs to be done to prove a definite
link.
