Heart health often does not feel urgent when you are younger, but the risks stack up fast as the years pass. After 60, the odds of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke rise sharply, and those conditions remain among the leading causes of death in older adults. Aging can stiffen and narrow blood vessels, while the heart muscle can grow thicker and less efficient at pushing blood through the body. Even so, lifestyle still shapes how quickly your body ages on a cellular level, which is why doctors keep pointing to one overlooked routine that can speed up the heart’s wear and tear.
The habit they are warning about is chronic sleep deprivation. Many people focus on exercise, balanced meals, and avoiding cigarettes, but they treat sleep like a luxury they can borrow against. According to psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist Dr. Beverly J. Fang, the link between too little sleep and high blood pressure is hard to ignore. “Risk increases when people regularly sleep less than five hours per night. Some studies show this connection may be especially pronounced in women,” she said in comments shared with Parade. That matters because high blood pressure is one of the strongest drivers of long term heart damage.
Dr. Fang explained that insufficient sleep disrupts the systems that keep blood pressure in check. “When we do not get enough sleep, the sympathetic nervous system activates, which speeds up the heart and raises blood pressure,” she said. At the same time, stress hormone levels such as cortisol can rise, which adds more strain to the cardiovascular system over time. In practical terms, your body stays closer to a constant alert state rather than fully resetting overnight. When that pattern repeats night after night, the heart gets fewer chances to recover.
Cardiologist Dr. Jack Wolfson, founder of Natural Heart Doctor, adds that poor sleep can also affect the lining of your blood vessels. He points to the endothelium, a thin layer of cells that helps vessels relax and respond to changes in blood flow. “Blood vessels lose the ability to produce nitric oxide, a substance that helps them relax. That is why they become stiffer and less adaptable,” he explained. “Over the long term, poor quality and insufficient sleep significantly increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.” When vessels are less flexible, the heart has to work harder to move blood, and that extra workload can compound with age.
Both doctors also emphasize inflammation as a key pathway linking short sleep to heart disease. Dr. Wolfson warns that even brief periods of sleep loss can harm blood vessels, speed the buildup of plaque in arteries, and increase stiffness. He also notes that existing plaque can become less stable, which is one reason sudden cardiac events can happen without much warning. “Existing deposits in blood vessels become more unstable, which raises the risk of rupture, and that is the most common trigger of a heart attack,” he said. In other words, sleep loss is not only about gradual risk, it can also influence the conditions that set off an emergency.
Another issue is how poor sleep can throw off your internal body clock. Dr. Fang said sleep deprivation can disrupt circadian rhythm, the body’s built in timing system, and that can lead to irregular blood pressure patterns and metabolic changes. When that rhythm is out of sync, the body may struggle to regulate blood sugar and other processes that indirectly burden the heart. Insulin resistance can worsen, raising the odds of developing type 2 diabetes, which is closely tied to cardiovascular problems. Over time, these changes can turn a simple bedtime problem into a full body stressor.
Dr. Wolfson argues this is why long term sleep deprivation can age the heart faster than smoking in some cases. Smoking is a powerful cardiovascular toxin, but chronic lack of sleep can hit multiple systems at once. “Smoking is a strong cardiovascular toxin, but chronic sleep deprivation simultaneously disrupts multiple systems in the body,” he concluded. “Poor sleep drives constant stress activation, chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalance, metabolic disruption, and accelerated biological aging, all at once.” That combination helps explain why sleep is increasingly treated as a core pillar of prevention, not an optional add on.
Sleep loss can also harm the heart by influencing weight and daily habits. Doctors point out that insufficient sleep can increase the risk of obesity, which is itself a major contributor to cardiovascular disease. Too little sleep can shift appetite hormones by raising ghrelin, which increases hunger, and lowering leptin, which signals fullness. Dr. Fang also notes that sleep loss can affect the brain’s reward system, making high calorie foods more tempting, while insulin sensitivity drops and blood sugar regulation becomes less stable. Dr. Wolfson adds that persistent fatigue can lower motivation to move, creating a loop where less sleep leads to less activity, then easier weight gain.
The good news is that sleep is a behavior you can improve with consistent routines. Dr. Wolfson recommends going to bed after sunset and waking with sunrise to support the natural biological rhythm. He also suggests avoiding screens before bed and getting regular exposure to daylight during the day. Those ideas aim to reduce late night stimulation and anchor your body clock so sleep comes more naturally. If you regularly struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, treating it like a health issue rather than a personality quirk can be a meaningful first step.
In general terms, sleep is not a single state but a cycle that moves through different stages, including light sleep, deeper slow wave sleep, and REM sleep. Each stage supports different kinds of repair, from tissue restoration to memory processing and emotional regulation. Circadian rhythm is guided by the brain and influenced by light, and it helps coordinate hormones such as melatonin that signal when the body is ready for rest. When you consistently shortchange sleep, you are not just losing hours, you are often disrupting those stages and signals. Over time, that disruption can show up as higher stress reactivity, worse metabolic health, and poorer cardiovascular resilience.
It is also worth knowing that not all sleep problems are the same. Insomnia can keep you from falling asleep, while sleep apnea can fragment sleep all night and strain the heart by repeatedly lowering oxygen levels. Loud snoring, waking up gasping, and excessive daytime sleepiness can be signs that it is time to speak with a clinician. Improving sleep hygiene can help many people, but persistent symptoms deserve professional attention because the downstream effects can reach far beyond fatigue. Share your thoughts in the comments on whether sleep has been the hardest health habit for you to protect.
