The impact of sleep deprivation on the coronary circulation

Epidemiologic studies have reported that sleep deprivation is associated with cardiovascular events. However, it remains unknown how sleep deprivation affects the coronary circulation. We assessed the impact of sleep deprivation on the coronary circulation using coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) measurements with transthoracic Doppler echocardiography. We studied 26 healthy male volunteers. Each subject's CFVR was measured in the morning after sleep deprivation (less than 4 h) or normal sleep (more than 7 h) on different days. Sleep durations were 3.7 ± 0.9 h (sleep deprivation) and 7.1 ± 0.2 h (normal sleep). CFVR after sleep deprivation was significantly lower than that after normal sleep (3.3 ± 0.6 versus 4.2 ± 0.9, p<0.001). Short sleep duration attenuated CFVR compared with normal sleep duration. This finding suggests that sleep deprivation might serve as a trigger for cardiovascular events.