Overview

• The JACC Advances paper followed 32 adults hospitalized for acutely decompensated heart failure who kept one-week sleep diaries after discharge.
• Over six months, 21 participants had a clinical event — defined as an emergency visit, rehospitalization or death — and those with moderately irregular sleep had more than double the risk.
• The association remained significant after accounting for sleep disorders and other comorbid conditions, according to the authors.
• Investigators led by Brooke M. Shafer at OHSU say improving sleep regularity could be a low-cost target and plan larger, interventional studies to test causality.
• Funding came from NIH institutes and the OHSU School of Nursing, with co-authors from OHSU and Boston College.