---
title: 'The Sleep Myth That Could Be Hurting Your Arteries'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=_W89d2rmKYA'
video_id: '_W89d2rmKYA'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 545
---

# The Sleep Myth That Could Be Hurting Your Arteries

> Source: [The Sleep Myth That Could Be Hurting Your Arteries](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_W89d2rmKYA)

## Summary

This video explores the relationship between sleep duration, quality, and atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries). It challenges the common belief that 8 hours of sleep is essential, showing that 7 hours is often optimal and that sleep quality and regularity matter more than duration within a healthy range.

### Key Points

- **Sleep's Impact on Arteries** [00:01] — Poor sleep influences the buildup of arterial plaque over years, not just immediate energy or productivity.
- **Sleep Duration Myth** [00:40] — The emphasis on sleeping 8 hours is not fully backed by data; mortality risk is lowest at 7 hours.
- **Long Sleep and Plaque** [01:44] — A 2023 study on over 1,500 adults found that sleeping over 9 hours was associated with increased atherosclerotic plaque, while short sleep was not in older adults.
- **Short Sleep Risk Under 40** [02:26] — A 2025 study on people over 40 found short sleep (<7 hours) linked to 58% higher plaque risk, even in low-risk individuals.
- **Optimal Sleep Duration** [02:54] — Sleeping 7 hours resulted in the lowest prevalence of coronary artery calcification in men aged 40-60.
- **Existing Plaque and Sleep** [04:26] — In patients with stable angina, sleeping 6-8 hours led to more stable plaques, while <5.5 hours increased vulnerability.
- **Quality Over Quantity** [05:06] — Sleep quality matters more than duration within the 6-8 hour range; 6 hours of high-quality sleep is better than 8 hours of poor sleep.
- **Sleep Regularity Matters** [05:45] — Consistent sleep timing (within 30 minutes) and duration (within 1 hour) are stronger predictors of survival and lower atherosclerosis risk.
- **Personal Experience** [06:49] — The speaker had irregular sleep from 18-28 but a recent CT scan showed zero plaque, suggesting that within the 6-7 hour range, short-term poor sleep may not be harmful in young people.
- **Key Takeaway** [08:29] — Sleeping 6-8 hours is safe for most people; extremes (<5.5 or >8 hours) are linked to higher mortality and plaque risk.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that sleeping 7 hours is ideal for artery health, but sleep quality and regularity are more critical than exact duration within the 6-8 hour window. Extreme sleep durations pose the greatest risk.

## Transcript

of energy recovery or productivity, but there's another question that matters even more. What does poor sleep do to your arteries? Because plaque doesn't suddenly appear overnight. It builds up quietly for years, and some research
suggests that the way you sleep influences how fast that process interesting is that the relationship isn't as simple as sleep longer and you'll be better off. Rather than asking, are you sleeping long enough? We
should ask, are you sleeping in a way that protects your arteries? Or are you accumulation easier? So, in this video, I'm going to cover the relationship between sleep duration, sleep quality, and atherosclerotic plaque buildup. Over
the last 10 years or so, many people have emphasized the importance of sleeping enough. They say, you need to sleep 8 hours for optimal health. But, is it really backed up by data? Studies often find that sleeping shorter than 6
hours is associated with a higher risk of mortality, but so is sleeping over 8 hours. However, the lowest mortality risk is seen at 7 hours per night. This doesn't mean that sleeping 8 hours is necessarily bad for you. People who need
to sleep over 8 hours do so because of some health problem. They're either hospitalized or they're sick with some disease that makes them sleep a lot longer. But, it also indicates that sleeping 7 hours is just fine, and it
might be even a better sign of overall health. It's also clear why sleeping increase your mortality. It's just not enough sleep. Short sleep raises resistance, worsens your metabolic health, and makes you gain more body
to the process of atherosclerosis and what's the relationship between sleep duration and atherosclerosis itself? A duration and atherosclerosis itself? A 2023 study on over 1,500 adults showed
associated with increased atherosclerotic plaque, whereas sleeping over 9 hours was. Short sleep and daytime sleepiness were not associated with atherosclerotic plaque. That's quite surprising, isn't it? The mean age
in this study was 64.7 plus or minus 8.5 years, which might indicate that in older people short sleep is more common and healthier people who sleep shorter do so because of being healthier, whereas older people who sleep very long
have some sickness or comorbidity that makes them more tired and want to sleep sleeping shorter does appear to be associated with higher atherosclerosis. In this 2025 study on people over the age of 40, which is relatively young
still, short sleep of less than 7 hours was associated with a higher 58% higher risk of plaque compared to sleeping 7 to 9 hours. They also had a 196% higher risk of greater plaque thickness and 157% higher risk of having multiple
plaques. These associations were found in people with low to intermediate risk of cardiovascular disease, which means that even healthy people who slept less than 7 hours saw a greater risk. So, what's the absolute best sleep duration
then? In this study on men aged 40 to 60, sleeping 7 hours resulted in the lowest prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in terms of coronary artery calcification. Coincidentally, this is the sleep duration that's often
found to be associated with the lowest mortality risk as well as heart disease simple as that try to sleep 7 hours, but it does indicate that sleeping 7 hours is enough for otherwise healthy people. Sleeping even less than 7 hours might be
fine for some people. In the large study on US adults I shared earlier, they duration and all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality. The lowest risk for both was seen at 7 hours a night, which makes sense. Less than
that, as well as more than that, were associated with increased risk. However, sleeping 5 to 6 hours for both all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality were not statistically significant. The confidence interval for both exceeded
1.0, which means the results aren't statistically significant. So, based on this information, the real range for lowest risk could be 5 to 7 hours. I'm inclined to think that the 7-hour range is still safer and more suitable for
most people, but it could mean that some people are able to sleep 6 hours without disease risk. However, what this does confirm is that the extreme sleep durations, less than 5 hours and longer than 8 hours, are significantly
associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. So, the range of 5 to 7 hours for otherwise healthy more people might be fine for not atherosclerosis risk, but it might not apply to each individual, and you don't
want to take a risk necessarily by sleeping 5 to 6 hours. It's still better to lean towards the 7 hours and maybe even longer than that. But what about people with already existing plaque? In this 2025 study on patients with stable
angina who got a CT scan, it was seen that better sleep in terms of longer sleep duration and lower PSQI score, which indicates better sleep quality, resulted in more stable plaques. Sleeping less than 5.5 hours was seen to
vulnerability, whereas sleeping longer than 5.5 hours resulted in more stable plaque. The best range was 6 to 8 hours. So, even in people with already existing plaque in the arteries, the best sleep duration is 6 to 8 hours. What these
studies find is that sleep quality matters a lot more than the sleep duration. In this study, higher sleep fragmentation and lower sleep duration were both associated with increased risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in people
around the age of 40 to 45. Sleep duration only matters in the context of extremes, sleeping less than 5.5 hours or sleeping longer than 8 hours. In the range of the 6 to 8 hour range, sleep quality matters more than the sleep
duration. 6 hours of high-quality sleep is better than low-quality 8 hours of sleep. Another important factor to this is consistency and regularity of your sleep regularity, going to bed and waking up around the same time, has been
seen to be a bigger predictor of survival than total sleep duration. To quintile, participants went to bed and woke up within a 1-hour window daily. Those in the lowest quintile varied by 3 plus hours. It's no surprise then that
sleep regularity also predicts atherosclerosis risk. In this 2023 meta-study, people with the highest irregularity in sleep had a higher risk of coronary artery calcification at over 300 calcium score as well as over zero.
It was found for both irregularity in total sleep duration, which means that their total sleep duration varied over 120 minutes, as well as their sleep timing irregularity. The only thing found not to be significant was carotid
intima media thickness, which reflects plaque in the carotid arteries and oftentimes soft plaque. Regular sleep in this study was considered to be less than 1 hour variation per night for sleep duration and less than 30 minutes
for sleep timing regularity. So, it's best to go to bed within 30 minutes of your regular bedtime and sleep plus and minus 1 hour from your regular sleep duration. The reason I made this video is because I was interested myself. You
a hectic sleep schedule since I was 18 years old up until the age of 28 or so. schedule and I was getting quite a worried. I thought maybe this hectic
having some irregular sleeping patterns, maybe it would have increased my risk of some plaque. For what it's worth, I did get a photon counting CT scan recently. It's a more advanced and less radiation type of CT scan compared to the regular
you can see both the hard plaque and soft plaque. Our results came back zero, plaque. Completely squeaky clean arteries. Now, of course, I was still young in this period, 18 to 28. Now, I'm 31, but in that 10-year time frame,
maybe this 10 years isn't long enough to see any significant atherosclerosis. And Maybe 10 years for someone who is 60 years old would have a significant least for me in my age from the age of 18 to 28, it didn't have any effect. So,
as a young person, you can probably get away with sleeping bad for even 10 years atherosclerosis. But, subclinical atherosclerosis already starts in their 20s for a lot of people. It's just that it's not common practice to measure
these things in people who are 20 or 30 years old, not even 40 years old. The standard practice is to measure people's arteries in their 50s or 60s. So, in reality, a lot of average people already have atherosclerosis in their 20s. It
just hasn't been measured. But, I did get it measured and my score is zero, fortunately. So, this video was mostly done to satisfy my own interest and to satisfy my own concerns whether or not poor sleep, short sleep increase my
atherosclerosis. The answer is no for me for various reasons, but I never slept less than 6 hours. So, my sleep was around 6 hours to 7 hours on average and based on the research, it appears sleeping 6 to 8 hours in that window,
there's no increased risk of atherosclerosis. But, on the extremes, sleeping less than 5.5 hours or if you sleep over 8 hours, that's associated other health reasons. But, nowadays, I sleep very good. Nowadays, I have
years, I've improved my sleep a lot. If you want to know how I improved my sleep quality and sleep scores from 75 to 100, quality and sleep scores from 75 to 100, then check out this video next.