SYDNEY, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- An Australian-led international research has found that people with irregular sleeping patterns are at a higher risk of major heart problems.

The study, which was published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that an irregular sleep-wake cycle is linked to a 26 percent higher risk of a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE).

Researchers from Australia's University of Sydney and Monash University, Columbia University of the United States and Canada's University of Ottawa analyzed data from 72,269 people aged 40-79 taking part in the ongoing United Kingdom Biobank study.

The participants, none of whom had any history of MACEs, wore an activity tracker for seven days to record their sleep. The data from the trackers was then used to calculate each participant's Sleep Regularity Index (SRI) score.

People with an SRI score of over 87.3 were considered to have a regular sleeping pattern while those with a score lower than 71.6 were considered irregular sleepers. People with a score between 71.6 and 87.3 were categorized as moderately irregular sleepers.

Incidents of cardiovascular death, heart attack, heart failure and stroke among participants were then recorded over the next eight years.

After accounting for potentially influential factors such as age, exercise levels, medication use and diet, irregular sleepers were found to be 26 percent more likely to suffer a MACE than regular sleepers.

Moderately irregular sleepers were 8 percent more likely than regular sleepers to have major heart problems.

Participants with the highest SRI scores had the lowest level of risk. Enditem

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