Practical Sleep Hygiene Counseling for Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in Primary Care

Sleep disorders affect an estimated 50 to 70 million adults in the US, yet sleep health remains an underutilized entry point in primary care cardiovascular risk management. Evidence linking sleep quality and duration to hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and major adverse cardiovascular events has grown substantially in recent years, prompting the American Heart Association to add sleep as the eighth component of its Life's Essential 8 framework. Despite this recognition, integrating sleep assessment into routine primary care visits remains inconsistent, and many clinicians lack practical tools for counseling patients on sleep improvement.

A central challenge is the heterogeneity of sleep disorders. Obstructive sleep apnea has an established evidence base in cardiovascular disease, but insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy each carry their own cardiovascular implications, and treatment approaches differ significantly. The relationship between sleep and blood pressure offers a particularly actionable example: patients with hypertension who also have untreated sleep disorders may not achieve adequate control through pharmacologic therapy alone. Addressing sleep quality as a modifiable contributor to blood pressure, alongside dietary modification and exercise, represents an underutilized lever in chronic disease management.

Virend Somers, MD, PhD, the Alice Sheets Marriott Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic, presented a session at SLEEP 2026 in Baltimore examining the intersection of sleep disorders and Life's Essential 8. His session addressed how traditional cardiovascular risk factors are independently influenced by sleep and outlined practical guidance for primary care clinicians, including the role of sleep regularity, individual sleep duration variability, and basic sleep hygiene counseling as starting points for integration into routine care. In the following interview, Somers discusses what primary care clinicians can do today to better address sleep health in their patients.

Dr Somers has no relevant disclosures.

References:

1. Lloyd-Jones DM, Allen NB, Anderson CAM, et al, on behalf of the American Heart Association. Life’s Essential 8: updating and enhancing the American Heart Association’s construct of cardiovascular health: a presidential advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2022;146:e18-e43. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060911