Soomi Lee of USF has found that aspects of poor sleep can increase the risk of heart disease by as much as 141 percent. Lee reviewed the sleep data of 6,820 U.S. adults who reported their sleep characteristics and heart disease history.

“These findings show the importance of assessing ‘co-existing sleep health problems’ within an individual to capture the risk of heart disease. This is one of the first studies showing that, among well-functioning adults in midlife, having more sleep health problems may increase the risk of heart disease,” said Lee.