Chronic insomnia is now treated as a cardiovascular risk factor, not a nuisance, and the first-line fix is not a pill.
The honest version is narrower than the headline:
- The heart risk concentrates in insomniacs whose short sleep shows up on a machine, nearly fourfold higher hypertension odds; feeling tired alone is not a blood pressure emergency
- Heart-failure risk climbs with the number of symptoms, from 22 percent higher at one to 80 percent at four
- The proven treatment is CBT-I: behavioral, drug-free, four to eight sessions, ahead of sleeping pills
- The catch: only 659 providers deliver it in the whole US, 206 board-certified, four states have none
No trial has yet shown it prevents a heart attack. You can buy a mattress, a ring, and magnesium overnight, then wait months for the therapy that actually works.
