
WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Proper sleep is essential, and a widely used scoring system for heart and brain health is being redefined to reflect that.Since 2010, the American Heart Association has said seven modifiable components – maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, being physically active, eating a healthy diet and controlling blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar – were key to ideal cardiovascular health.Those components, dubbed Life's Simple 7, became a common way for doctors and patients to rate and discuss heart and brain health. It's also been a key research tool, used in more than 2,500 scientific papers.Sleep duration joins those seven original metrics in a revised scoring tool, now called Life's Essential 8, which published...