Peo­ple with in­som­nia may be more like­ly to have a stroke than peo­ple who don't have trou­ble sleep­ing, ac­cord­ing to a new study.

Study par­tic­i­pants who had in­som­nia had a 54 per cent high­er risk of stroke over four years than the peo­ple who were not di­ag­nosed with the sleep dis­or­der.

They al­so found that, among peo­ple with in­som­nia, stroke was eight times more com­mon in peo­ple ages 18 to 34 than in those old­er than 34.

"Our re­sults add sup­port to the pri­or find­ings on the link be­tween in­som­nia and a wide range of health risks," said study au­thor Ya-Wen Hsu, an as­sis­tant pro­fes­sor at Chia Nan Uni­ver­si­ty of Phar­ma­cy and Sci­ence in Tai­wan.

"Though in­som­nia is the most com­mon sleep com­plaint, it should be per­ceived more as a symp­tom of an­oth­er dis­ease," Hsu told Live Sci­ence. Peo­ple with in­som­nia should be treat­ed ear­ly to pre­vent oth­er con­di­tions, he said.

Al­though the num­ber of deaths from stroke in the Unit­ed States de­clined by 22.8 per cent be­tween 2000 and 2010, about 795,000 peo­ple have a stroke each year, ac­cord­ing to the Amer­i­can Heart As­so­ci­a­tion. In 2010, stroke was re­spon­si­ble for one out of every 19 deaths in the US.

In the study, the re­searchers fol­lowed a group of 21,438 peo­ple with in­som­nia and 64,314 healthy peo­ple for four years. Dur­ing the study, 583 (2.7 per cent) of those with in­som­nia were ad­mit­ted to a hos­pi­tal for stroke, where­as 962 (1.5 per cent) of those with­out in­som­nia were ad­mit­ted for stroke.

The link was strongest in peo­ple who'd had trou­ble sleep­ing for up to six months, ac­cord­ing to the study.

The re­searchers said they don't know how or why in­som­nia may be linked with an in­creased risk of stroke.

How­ev­er, they spec­u­lat­ed that the sleep­ing dis­or­der may con­tribute to in­flam­ma­tion, in­crease blood pres­sure and dereg­u­late me­tab­o­lism and, there­fore, af­fect peo­ple's car­dio­vas­cu­lar health, Hsu said.

"We feel strong­ly that in­di­vid­u­als with chron­ic in­som­nia, par­tic­u­lar­ly younger per­sons, see their physi­cian to have stroke risk fac­tors as­sessed and, when in­di­cat­ed, treat­ed ap­pro­pri­ate­ly," Hsu said in a state­ment.

(Live­Science.com)