Use healthy sleep habits to get the protective slumber you need.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Two recent studies show that not getting enough sleep does more than leave you foggy the next day. According to research published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, people with high blood pressure are more prone to cardiovascular disease if they don’t get enough sleep. And a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research found that women who exercise but skimp on sleep could be wiping out the apparent cancer-protective benefits of exercise.

THE DETAILS: Japanese researchers studied 1,255 people suffering from hypertension, monitoring their BP for an average of 50 months. Short sleep—less than 7.5 hours a night—was linked to a nearly 70% increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Those whose systolic blood pressure rose at night (known as the “riser pattern”) were even more at risk. In a separate study, lead author James McClain, PhD, cancer-prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute, looked at the health records of nearly 6,000 women. The analysis revealed that about 600 women developed cancer over the course of 10 years; breast cancer accounted for nearly a third of the cases. Women under age 65 who exercised had a 50% increase in risk of developing cancer if they slept less than 7 hours a day, compared with exercisers who got more sleep. Nonetheless, women who were short on sleep but were physically active had a lower risk of cancer than those who didn’t exercise.

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More about sleep and health:
Get Better Sleep: Put 5 Sleep-Stealing Behaviors to Rest
Sleep Better with Skills, Not Pills
Eat, Drink, and Be Sleepy! 5 Natural Sleep Aids

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WHAT IT MEANS: Sleep is important for everyone, but if you have high blood pressure it’s especially important that you get your Zs. And women may be especially vulnerable to the health risks of losing sleep: More than half of women say sleep is the first thing they sacrifice when pressed for time, and nearly 70% of women say they have frequent sleep problems.

Take back the night with these sleep tips: