Sleep duration matters for heart health, according to new recommendations

If you needed another reason to get enough sleep, here it is: It may help your heart health

Adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep each night, said pulmonary critical care and sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a clinical associate professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

However, people need to have quality sleep to reap the benefits, said Dasgupta, who is also a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

A person goes through multiple sleep cycles made up of non-REM and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, Dasgupta said. There are three stages of non-REM sleep, and in the third one you enter deep sleep, which restores the body both mentally and physically, he explained.

If you keep waking up, it will prevent you from going to those deeper stages, Dasgupta said. This can lead to higher blood pressure and increased blood sugar levels, which is associated with diabetes and obesity, he said. Those conditions contribute to lower heart health and increase the risk of developing heart failure, Dasgupta said.