While not getting a good night's sleep is not good for anyone's health, it appears that it can be especially bad for women. Recent studies are showing that sleeping poorly takes a higher toll on women's cardiovascular health than men's.
The study found that about 40 percent of the men and women were classified as poor sleepers, defined as having frequent problems falling asleep, taking 30 or more minutes to fall asleep or awakening frequently during the night.
But while the sleep quality of the men and women studied were similar, the effects of the poor sleep patterns on the cardiac health of the men and women were dramatically different.
For women, poor sleep is strongly associated with high levels of psychological distress and greater feelings of hostility, depression and anger. They had higher levels of all the biomarkers tests -- higher levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, measures of inflammation that have been associated with increased risk of heart disease and higher levels of insulin.
Women who reported taking a half an hour or more to fall asleep showed the worst cardiac risk profile, according to the study.