Poor sleep linked to next-day episodes of atrial fibrillation

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When people with atrial fibrillation (afib) sleep poorly, they may be more likely to have an episode of afib the next day, a new study finds.

The study included 419 people with paroxysmal afib, which is characterized by intermittent episodes of a rapid, irregular heart rate. For 10 weeks, they used a smartphone app to rate their nightly sleep as amazing, good, average, bad, or horrible, and then used mobile electrocardiograms to measure afib episodes the following day.

Researchers found that worse sleep quality on any given night was linked to a 15% greater risk of an afib episode the next day. Continued poor sleep was associated with longer episodes of afib, with each progressively worse category of sleep linked with an average of 16 additional minutes of afib per day. Strategies to improve sleep might help prevent and treat afib, say the authors, whose findings were published online Oct. 12, 2023, by JACC Clinical Electrophysiology.