Getting enough sleep seems to decrease the risk of coronary artery calcification, an early step down the path to cardiovascular disease, a research team based at the University of Chicago Medical Center reports.About 12% of those in the study (495 healthy volunteers in their 40s) first developed coronary artery calcification over five years of follow-up. Calcified arteries, however, were found in 27% of those who slept less than five hours a night. That dropped to 11% for those who slept five to seven hours and fell to six percent for those who slept more than seven hours a night.

JAMA – December 24/31, 2008;300:2859-66.

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