Sleep duration and cardiometabolic health

Here is a scientific statement from AHA. From the abstract:

Sleep is increasingly recognized as an important lifestyle contributor to health. However, this has not always been the case, and an increasing number of Americans choose to curtail sleep in favor of other social, leisure, or work-related activities. This has resulted in a decline in average sleep duration over time. Sleep duration, mostly short sleep, and sleep disorders have emerged as being related to adverse cardiometabolic risk, including obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease.

Of interest, sleep duration may influence eating behavior. More from the paper (SSD=short sleep duration):

An emerging evidence base suggests that SSD is related to food intake. Among factory workers in Japan, SSD was associated with more snacking between meals, more irregular eating habits, less consumption of vegetables, and a greater preference for strongly flavored food.49 In the United States, a study of 459 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative examined relationships between dietary records and sleep diary and actigraphy variables.50 This study showed that SSD, measured objectively with actigraphy, was strongly associated with higher intakes of many dietary fat–related variables.