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Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule may be an important factor to consider for protecting the heart, according to new, independent, preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2026. The meeting is Nov. 6–9 in Chicago.
"While we often focus on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, having a regular sleep schedule—consistent bedtimes, wake times and sleep duration from night to night—is a practical, actionable step anyone can take that may help protect their heart and blood vessels," said lead researcher Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet, a neuroscientist and postdoctoral research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Researchers analyzed sleep data from more than 10,000 adults who wore an activity-tracking device as part of the National Institutes of Health's "All of Us" Research Program.
Irregular sleep was linked to a much wider range of heart conditions than expected, Viet noted.
"Sleep irregularity is often due to weekends—we get to sleep a little bit later on a Friday night; or people have shift work. This may not be good for your heart health," Viet said. "Sometimes the quality of sleep is something we cannot control. But the regularity, consistent bedtimes throughout the week and waking up at the same time every morning, is something some people can control."
The study findings should be interpreted cautiously, said American Heart Association volunteer expert Marie-Pierre St-Onge, who chaired the association's 2025 scientific statement: "Multidimensional Sleep Health: Definitions and Implications for Cardiometabolic Health" and was not involved in this study.
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