Waking up briefly throughout the night may do more than leave you feeling grumpy and tired in the morning.
Disrupted sleep may actually increase your odds of dying early from heart disease or any other cause, and women seem to be harder hit by these effects than men.
“The data underscores all the more reasons why we need to be screening people about whether or not they feel refreshed and how much sleep they’re getting each night,” said Dr. Andrea Matsumura, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, who reviewed the findings.