POOR sleepers are more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, a study warns.

Those who struggle with kip are said to be up to 18 per cent more at risk.

Researchers spent a decade keeping tabs on more than 487,000 people with an average age of 51 who had no history of stroke or heart disease.

They were asked if they had any of three insomnia symptoms — trouble falling or staying asleep, waking up too early or poor focus during the day due to poor sleep.

Participants who had all three turned out to be 18 per cent more likely to have a stroke or heart disease than those with no symptoms. The risk increase was between seven and 13 per cent for people with just one symptom, said the Chinese study published in journal Neurology.

Study leader Dr Liming Li, of Beijing University, said: “These results suggest if we can target people who are having trouble sleeping with behavioural therapies, it’s possible we could reduce cases of stroke, heart attack and other diseases later down the line.”

Dr Li added: “The link between insomnia symptoms and these diseases was even stronger in younger adults and people who did not have high blood pressure at the start of the study, so future research should look especially at early detection and interventions aimed at these groups.”

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