Men who do not get enough sleep may face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the results of a new study indicate.

According to the findings, middle-aged men who sleep for less than five hours per night have twice the risk of experiencing a major cardiovascular event over the following two decades, compared to those who get seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

"For people with busy lives, sleeping may feel like a waste of time, but our study suggests that short sleep could be linked with future cardiovascular disease," commented the study's author, Moa Bengtsson, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The study focused on almost 800 50-year-old men. They were divided into four groups in relation to their sleeping habits:
-Five or less hours per night
-Six hours
-Seven to eight hours, which was considered normal sleep duration
-More than eight hours.

The men were followed up for 21 years, during which time cardiovascular events were recorded, such as heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular disease.

The study found that men who slept five hours or less per night were more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. They were also more likely to be smokers, with low physical activity levels.

The study also found that compared to those who got seven to eight hours of sleep per night, men who slept for less than five hours had a two-fold increased risk of suffering a major cardiovascular event by the age of 71.

This risk remained after adjusting for risk factors such as obesity and diabetes.

"In our study, the magnitude of increased cardiovascular risk associated with insufficient sleep is similar to that of smoking or having diabetes at age 50.

"This was an observational study so based on our findings we cannot conclude that short sleep causes cardiovascular disease, or say definitively that sleeping more will reduce risk. However, the findings do suggest that sleep is important and that should be a wake-up call to all of us," Ms Bengtsson said.

Details of these findings were presented at the ESC (European Society of Cardiology) Congress 2018 in Munich, Germany.