Scientists from the Columbia University Medical Center revealed in a new study that people who get poor sleep after a heart attack might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A poor night's sleep has often been linked to health hazards like obesity and heart diseases. Now, researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center revealed in a new study that people who get poor sleep after a heart attack might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study revealed that it was common for people to show symptoms of PTSD after a heart attack and one in every eight patients who have heart attacks suffer from this disorder. Such patients are also more likely to suffer another cardiac arrest or die in the next two to three years than heart attack survivors that do not have PTSD.  Reportedly more female patients than males suffer from this stress. They generally have higher BMIs and show severe symptoms of depression.

After analyzing over 200 patients who had a heart attack within the last one month, researchers of the study found that poor sleep was associated with people who displayed symptoms of the disorder after a heart attack. According to researchers, all patients that had heart attack induced PTSD also reported having problems with sleeping in the month following the heart attack. These sleep problems included sleep quality, more sleep disturbances, shorter sleep duration, use of sleeping medications and daytime dysfunction due to poor sleep the night before.

The study also states that dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, which is associated with both sleeping disorders as well as PTSD, could be the reason why people with post-traumatic stress disorder after a heart attack also have poor sleep.

The paper is titled, "Association of Acute Coronary Syndrome-Induced Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms with Self-Reported Sleep" and has been published in PLOS ONE.