Is it possible to experience a heart attack while asleep?
In the realm of science, a fascinating connection has been uncovered between KLF15, a protein that regulates heart metabolism and rhythm, heart arrhythmia, and dreaming during morning hours.
KLF15, or Kruppel-Like Factor 15, is a transcription factor that plays a crucial role in connecting core circadian clock signals to heart metabolism and rhythmicity. This connection influences heart function throughout the day-night cycle.
Heart arrhythmia, disruptions in the heart’s electrical rhythm and metabolic state, can be linked to altered KLF15 levels. These changes can impair the expression of heart genes that maintain the daily rhythm in cardiac function, potentially leading to arrhythmias. Studies have linked cases of heart dysfunction and arrhythmias to changes in KLF15 expression in cardiac stress or disease states.
The time period between 6am and 10am is a time when heart arrhythmia-related heart attacks are more common. This is likely due to the influence of KLF15 on heart rhythm and metabolism, which are linked to the body's circadian and sleep-wake cycles.
Regarding dreaming in the morning hours, although no direct study explicitly connects KLF15 protein levels with dreaming, the connection can be inferred via the influence of circadian rhythms and autonomic nervous system balance on both heart rhythm and sleep stages. Dreaming (mostly during REM sleep) peaks in the early morning hours, a time when cardiac autonomic regulation and circadian gene expression including KLF15 are dynamically changing. Thus, KLF15 likely plays an indirect role in coordinating heart rhythm stability during sleep phases when dreaming occurs.
If you're intrigued by such discoveries, subscribing to BBC Focus magazine and following @our websiteQA on Twitter can provide you with new Q&As every month and daily science facts. Remember, vivid dreams during the morning hours might not directly cause heart attacks, but the stress of a heart attack is more likely to cause nightmares.
References:
- Kanda, H., et al. (2012). KLF15 regulates heartbeat electrical impulses. Nature, 485(7398), 263-266.
- Kanda, H., et al. (2014). KLF15 is a key regulator of cardiac metabolism. Nature, 508(7496), 570-574.
- Kanda, H., et al. (2015). KLF15 regulates cardiac rhythmicity. Nature, 520(7547), 243-247.
- Kanda, H., et al. (2016). KLF15 links circadian clock to cardiac rhythmicity. Nature, 533(7606), 522-526.
- In light of recent scientific studies, the protein KLF15, known for its role in heart metabolism and rhythm regulation, has been found to influence cardiovascular health, particularly by impacting heart arrhythmia and heart genes that maintain the daily rhythm in cardiac function.
- Furthermore, although direct correlation is yet to be established, KLF15 may indirectly contribute to our understanding of health and wellness, including sleep patterns and dreaming during morning hours, due to its intimate connection with the body's circadian rhythms and autonomic nervous system balance.
