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Researchers: Failure to Get Proper Rest Could Be Hazardous to Your Health

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The researchers analyzed the association between sleep scores and cardiovascular events after adjusting for age, sex, alcohol consumption, occupation, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, cholesterol level, diabetes, and family history of heart attack, stroke, or sudden cardiac death.
The post Researchers: Failure to Get Proper Rest Could Be Hazardous to Your Health first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 years ago

September 1, 2022

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By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

A staggering 90 percent of people fail to achieve a good night’s sleep, according to new international research presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2022.

The study found that suboptimal sleep was associated with a higher likelihood of heart disease and stroke.

The authors estimated that seven in ten of these cardiovascular conditions could be prevented if everyone was a good sleeper.

And while researchers homed in on the sleep behaviors of 7,200 people — comprised mostly of Europeans — Americans also aren’t sleeping.

Black Americans suffer worse from short sleep or sleep apnea.

Earlier this year, the JAMA Open Network indicated that the problem continues to worsen for African Americans.

JAMA researchers discovered that Black Americans get less sleep than white people, a deficit of 15 minutes a day in childhood that grows into almost an hour in adulthood.

Additionally, an Oxford study found that far more Black and Hispanic people than white people report routinely getting less than 6 hours of sleep, well short of the recommended 7 to 9 hours for adults.

“Sleep is a privilege,” Dayna Johnson, a sleep epidemiologist at Emory University, told Science.org. “If we can target sleep, we might be able to reduce the burden of all types of diseases among racial minorities.”

Science Direct found that more than a dozen studies have identified racial discrimination as a contributor to sleep disparities.

“Black people reported more discrimination and more severe insomnia symptoms than white people, and a statistical analysis determined discrimination accounted for 60% of their insomnia severity,” researchers wrote at Science Direct.

Researchers also discovered that environmental factors also cut into sleep. For example, multiple studies have found that Black, Hispanic, and other individuals of color tend to reside in areas where they are exposed to approximately twice as much ambient light at night as white people.

“Exposure to artificial light from the street and commercial buildings has been found to suppress melatonin—a hormone that helps initiate sleep,” Researchers wrote. “That causes people to fall asleep later at night, resulting in poorer sleep overall.”

Science.org also found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian people in the United States are also exposed to disproportionately high levels of particulate air pollution.

The researchers reported that exposure to this type of pollution can cause inflammation of the nose and throat, and some evidence suggests chronic exposure can worsen sleep apnea and increase daytime sleepiness.

“And then there is night-time noise, which a 2017 study at hundreds of sites across the United States found is higher in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of Black residents,” they wrote.

The low prevalence of good sleepers “was expected given our busy, 24/7 lives,” said study author Dr. Aboubakari Nambiema of INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), in Paris, France.

“The importance of sleep quality and quantity for heart health should be taught early in life when healthy behaviors become established. Minimizing night-time noise and stress at work can both help improve sleep.”

According to a news release from the ESC, previous studies on sleep and heart disease have generally focused on one sleep habit, such as sleep duration or sleep apnea, where breathing stops and starts while sleeping.

Researchers in France used a healthy sleep score combining five sleep habits. They investigated the association between the baseline sleep score, changes over time in the sleep score, and incident cardiovascular disease.

Researchers recruited men and women aged 50 to 75 years and free of cardiovascular disease to a preventive medical center between 2008 and 2011.

The average age was 59.7 years, and 62% were men.

Participants underwent a physical examination and completed questionnaires on lifestyle, personal and family medical history, and medical conditions.

According to the news release, researchers used questionnaires to collect information on five sleep habits at baseline and two follow-up visits.

Each factor was given 1 point if optimal and 0 if not.

A healthy sleep score ranging from 0 to 5 was calculated, with 0 or 1 considered poor and 5 considered optimal.

Those with an optimal score reported sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night, never or rarely having insomnia, no frequent excessive daytime sleepiness, no sleep apnoea, and an early chronotype (being a morning person).

The researchers checked for incident coronary heart disease and stroke every two years for a total of 10 years.

At baseline, 10% of participants had an optimal sleep score, and 8% had a poor score.

“During a median follow-up of eight years, 274 participants developed coronary heart disease or stroke,” according to the release.

The researchers analyzed the association between sleep scores and cardiovascular events after adjusting for age, sex, alcohol consumption, occupation, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, cholesterol level, diabetes, and family history of heart attack, stroke, or sudden cardiac death.

They found that the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke decreased by 22% for every 1-point rise in the sleep score at baseline.

More specifically, compared to those with a score of 0 or 1, participants with a score of 5 had a 75% lower risk of heart disease or stroke.

The researchers estimated the proportion of cardiovascular events that could be prevented with healthier sleep.

They found that if all participants had an optimal sleep score, 72% of new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke might be avoided each year.

Over two follow-ups, almost half of the participants (48%) changed their sleep score: in 25%, it decreased, whereas, in 23%, it improved.

When the researchers examined the association between the change in score and cardiovascular events, they found that a 1-point increment over time was associated with a 7% reduction in coronary heart disease or stroke risk.

“Our study illustrates the potential for sleeping well to preserve heart health and suggests that improving sleep is linked with lower risks of coronary heart disease and stroke,” Dr. Nambiema stated in the release.

“We also found that the vast majority of people have sleep difficulties. Given that cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death worldwide, greater awareness is needed on the importance of good sleep for maintaining a healthy heart.”

The post Researchers: Failure to Get Proper Rest Could Be Hazardous to Your Health first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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LIVE from the NMA Convention Raheem DeVaughn Says The Time Is Now: Let’s End HIV in Our Communities #2

Set against the backdrop of the NMA conference, Executive Officers from the National Medical Association, Grammy Award Winning Artist and Advocate Raheem DeVaughn, and Gilead Sciences experts, are holding today an important conversation on HIV prevention and health equity. Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event […]

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event is designed to uplift voices, explore barriers to access, and increase awareness and key updates about PrEP, a proven prevention method that remains underutilized among Black women. This timely gathering will feature voices from across health, media, and advocacy as we break stigma and center equity in HIV prevention.

Additional stats and information to know:

● Black women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, with Black women representing more than 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. in 2022, despite comprising just 13% of women in the U.S.

● Women made up only 8% of PrEP users despite representing 19% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

● Gilead Sciences is increasing awareness and addressing stigma by encouraging regular HIV testing and having judgment-free conversations with your healthcare provider about prevention options, including oral PrEP and long-acting injectable PrEP options.

● PrEP is an HIV prevention medication that has been available since 2012.

● Only 1 in 3 people in the U.S. who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed a form of PrEP in 2022.

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TRUMP: “Washington, D.C. is Safe”

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By Apriil Ryan
BlackPressUSA Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

“Washington, D.C. is safe,” President Trump declared from the Oval Office today. Those words came while Trump was hosting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the question-and-answer session, which primarily focused on a peace deal in the Russian-Ukrainian war, Trump explained, “You did that in four days.” He was speaking of how fast the National Guard quelled the violence in what was once called Chocolate City.

The President deployed the National Guard to D.C. a week ago, to a city with reduced crime rates over the previous year. Violent crime dropped by 26%, marking the lowest level in 30 years. Homicides also fell by 11%.

President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Trump reinforced his claim about the newly acquired safety in D.C. by relaying that a friend’s son is attending dinner in D.C., something he would not have done last year.

After the president finished his comments, a reporter/commentator in the room with close connections to Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped into the high-level conversation to affirm the president’s comments, saying, “I walked around yesterday with MTG. If you can walk around D.C. with MTG and not be attacked, this city is safe.”

That reporter was the same person who chastised President Zelenskyy months ago during his first Oval Office meeting with Trump for not wearing a business suit. Zelenskyy, a wartime President, has been clad in less formal attire to reflect the country’s current war stance against Russia.

Without any sourcing, President Trump also said, “People that haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington, D.C., in two years are going out to dinner, and the restaurants the last two days have been busier than they’ve been in a long time.”

The increase in policing in Washington, D.C. is because a 19-year-old former Doge employee was carjacked in the early hours of the morning recently.

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Rising Energy Costs Weigh Heaviest on Black Households

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

A new national study from Binghamton University and California State University, San Bernardino, finds that Black households spend a far larger share of their income on energy compared to white households, even when income levels are the same. “We often say that African Americans suffer more, but we often blame it just on income. And the reality is, there is something more there,” study author George Homsy, associate professor at Binghamton University, wrote. “It’s not just because they tend to be poor. There is something that’s putting them at a disadvantage. I think what happened is it happens to be where they live.” The study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, analyzed 65,000 census tracts across the United States. It found that while the average American household spends about 3.2% of income on energy bills, households in the majority African American census tracts spend an average of 5.1%.

Homsy and researcher Ki Eun Kang point to the age and condition of housing stock, along with lower homeownership rates, as key drivers. Their research concludes that “energy burden is not simply a matter of income or energy cost but also race, which might be driven by place.” Older, less energy-efficient housing and high rental rates in Black communities mean residents often cannot make upgrades like improved insulation or new appliances, locking families into higher bills.

Tradeoffs and Health Risks

The consequences go beyond money. Families forced to spend 10% or more of their income on energy — what experts classify as “unmanageable” — may cut back on food, medicine, or other essentials. More than 12 million U.S. households report leaving their homes at unsafe temperatures to reduce costs, while millions more fall behind on utility bills. The health effects are severe. High energy burdens increase risks of asthma, depression, poor sleep, pneumonia, and even premature death. The issue is especially acute for African Americans, who are disproportionately exposed to housing and environmental conditions that amplify these risks.

Washington, D.C.: A Case Study

In Washington, D.C., the problem is particularly stark. A recent analysis by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) shows that SNAP-eligible households spend more than 20% of their income on energy bills. Across the metro area, nearly two-thirds of low-income households devote over 6% of their income to energy, and 40% face what researchers call a “severe financial strain,” paying more than 10%. Pepco, the District’s primary electricity provider, has implemented three consecutive annual rate hikes, pushing the average household bill to $114 per month as of January 2025. Shutoffs have followed — nearly 12,000 customers lost service in 2024, with disconnections doubling after a summer rate hike. Washington Gas has also sought a 12% rate increase and pushed a controversial $215 million pipeline replacement project, rebranded as “District SAFE.” The plan could ultimately cost D.C. households an additional $45,000 each over several decades, or nearly $1,000 annually added to bills.

Historical Roots

Researchers argue that these inequities are not accidental but rooted in history. The ScienceDirect study reveals that African American communities living in formerly redlined neighborhoods continue to face disadvantages today — from poor housing quality to higher climate risks. Homsy says policymakers must make targeted efforts. “It is harder to get to rental units where a lot of poor people live,” he noted. “We need to work harder to get into these communities of color.”