Insomnia was associated with a 26 per cent higher risk of stroke and a 28 per cent higher likelihood of being hospitalised, according to an international review led by the European Academy of Neurology in collaboration with MedUni Vienna. The work, published in Sleep Medicine Reviews, pulled together the existing evidence on what chronic sleeplessness means for long-term health beyond tiredness and poor daytime functioning.
The team examined seven areas: dementia, stroke, depression, suicidal behaviour, mortality, workplace accidents and hospital admissions, and carried out fresh systematic reviews on stroke, workplace accidents and hospital admissions. The stroke analysis drew on nine studies covering more than 1.3 million participants, six of which were combined in a meta-analysis. Five studies fed into the hospital admissions estimate.
For readers concerned about cognition, the dementia signal is the notable part. Several systematic reviews found associations between insomnia and dementia, with Alzheimer's disease standing out, along with links to depression and suicidal behaviour. The authors are careful to note that results were not consistent across every endpoint they looked at, which is the usual pattern when pooling observational research collected in different ways.
The practical message from the review is about visibility rather than any single intervention: the authors argue sleep belongs in conversations about brain health at every stage of life, and that insomnia and its treatment deserve more attention in health promotion efforts in communities, schools and workplaces.