Getting to the Heart of Sleep Health

This episode explores the critical connections between hypertension, sodium intake, and sleep health—three interrelated factors that significantly influence blood pressure control and cardiovascular risk. Expert faculty discuss the latest evidence on how excess sodium and insufficient or disrupted sleep contribute to hypertension, the physiologic mechanisms behind these relationships, and the impact on different patient populations. Listeners will gain practical insights into identifying overlooked contributors to poor blood pressure control and learn how to integrate lifestyle and behavioral strategies alongside pharmacologic treatment to support more effective, patient-centered care.

An estimated 50 to 70 million American adults have a chronic, or ongoing sleep disorder. In this episode, experts will provide an overview of the epidemiology of different types of sleep problems and disorders. Learn more about the difference classifications of sleep disorders including the criteria, treatment, and relationship to cardiovascular disease.

Sleep quality is consequential to cardiovascular health. Studies show short sleep duration or poor sleep quality are associated with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and atherosclerosis. Learn more in this vodcast about the characteristics and etiologies of insomnia. We also discuss how to assess insomnia in an office visit and what other conditions may present with insomnia.

Many patients that you see in clinical practice have sleep issues, but they will not share that unless they are prompted about it. In this podcast leaders in sleep medicine discuss Getting to the Heart of Sleep Health. Drs. Younghoon Kwon, Marie-Pierre St-Onge and Nancy Redeker explore how patients may have multiple symptoms, and they're often accompanied by dissatisfaction with sleep and patients reporting that they don't feel refreshed when they wake up in the morning. Learn from experts in sleep medicine about talking with your patients.

Sleep quality is consequential to cardiovascular health.

• We're just beginning to understand the effects of short sleep duration at the molecular and cellular level.
• Among other side effects, lack of sleep causes our organs to secrete hormones that cause us to eat more than we really need.
• What are the characteristics of healthy sleep? Sleep is important for our health, but we often take it for granted. Unfortunately, sleep is often the first thing to go when we are pressed for time.

In this informative podcast Drs. Dayna Johnson, Anne Fink and Konrad Sawicki discuss the implications of sleep for our cardiovascular health and how, at a population level, sleep quality, or lack of it, is a public health concern. Listen and learn from experts in sleep health on the definition and evaluation of sleep health.