Heart attacks may be worse if they happen in the morning, study suggests

Thu, 28 Apr 2011
A new study has found evidence to suggest that damage caused by heart attacks is likely to be worse if they occur in the morning than at any other time.

The research comes from scientists in Spain, who analysed data from over 800 heart attack patients.

Publishing their results in the journal Heart, the researchers found that people who had a heart attack between 6am and 12 noon had 20 per cent more damage to their heart muscle than people who had heart attacks later in the day.

It is thought that this might be related to the body's natural sleep-awake cycle, with previous studies showing that people are more likely to have a heart attack around the time that they awake from sleep .

Commenting on the study, Judy O’Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study provides some interesting observations on the association between the time of day a heart attack occurs and the degree of subsequent damage to the heart muscle.

"However further research is needed before we can draw firm conclusions."

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