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DETROIT — While sales of its main competitors are rising, the ageing Chevrolet Equinox compact SUV has taken a dramatic tumble so far this year in the fastest-growing part of the US market.

General Motors is hoping to turn that around when it replaces the Equinox with a revamped model that goes on sale early next year.

Its main competitors, the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue and Ford Escape, all have seen sales increases through August, but Equinox sales are down almost 18 per cent. Some of that can be attributed to GM’s corporate cut in sales to rental car companies, but much of it is due to age of the SUV, which was last revamped in 2010. Newer models generally sell better, and most of its competitors are newer.

The Equinox is an important product for GM in what has become the biggest part of the US market, where the company gets most of its sales and profits. Compact SUVs accounted for just 7.2 per cent of the US market just a decade ago, but that has more than doubled to 16.5 per cent so far this year, according to the Edmunds.com automotive website. The SUVs appeal to just about all demographic groups, from ageing baby boomers who are downsizing vehicles to millennials who like the high seating position and ability to haul outdoor gear.

The boxy old version of the Equinox, even in its late years, sold well but is starting to fade against the market leading CR-V and RAV4.

Edmunds senior analyst Jessica Caldwell says it will have to look less like an SUV in order to catch buyers who are now attached to Honda and Toyota entries. And even if it gains sales, the Equinox won’t be the newest in the market for very long. “Chances are your competitors are right behind you,” she said. “It’s tough.”

The timing is right for the new Equinox, said John Mendel, the executive vice president of Honda. “I don’t know that it’s going to be a quantum shift or some seismic event,” said Mendel, who hasn’t driven the new Equinox yet.

On Thursday night in Chicago, GM showed off the sculpted new 2018 version, which the company says borrows much of its looks from sleek new cars such as the Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu. The new Equinox is 180 kilogrammes lighter, 13 centimetres shorter and about 2.5 centimetres lower than the old model. But it also has slightly less front and rear legroom, according to GM’s specifications.

Gone are the Equinox’s old 3.6-litre V6 and 2.4-litre four-cylinder engines, replaced by two smaller four-cylinder gas powerplants and a diesel, all turbocharged for better acceleration. The base 1.5-litre engine puts out 170 horsepower, while an upgraded 2-litre four cranks out 252. The base engine will get a GM-estimated 8.5 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway, the same as the outgoing model. But the 1.6-litre diesel will get an estimated 7 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway, GM said.

“Customers can select an engine that offers more of the attributes that are important to them: efficiency, performance and capability,” said Dan Nicholson, GM’s vice president of global propulsion systems.

The new version also comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to integrate smart phones into the SUVs, and a host of safety features including low-speed automatic braking and an alert if you’ve left a child in the rear seat. Price and a specific sale date were not announced.

LONDON — Exposure to bright light can raise testosterone levels and lead to greater sexual satisfaction in men with low sexual desire, according to the results of a small scientific trial.

Scientists at the University of Siena in Italy found that regular, early-morning use of a light box — similar to those used to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD — helped men increase testosterone and improved their sex lives.

Andrea Fagiolini, a professor who led the study and presented it at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Vienna on Monday, said the treatment may prove useful during the Northern hemisphere’s darker winter months.

“The increased levels of testosterone explain the greater reported sexual satisfaction,” he said. “In the Northern hemisphere, the body’s testosterone production naturally declines from November through April, and then rises steadily through the spring and summer with a peak in October.”

Low sexual desire can affect significant numbers of men after the age of 40, with studies finding that up to 25 per cent of men report problems.

Fagiolini’s team recruited 38 men diagnosed with either hypoactive sexual desire disorder or sexual arousal disorder — both characterised by a lack of interest in sex. 

After taking baseline readings, they divided the men into two groups and gave one regular treatment with a bright light box, while the control, or placebo, group was treated with a light box adapted to give out significantly less light.

“We found fairly significant differences,” Fagiolini said.

“Before treatment, both groups averaged a sexual satisfaction score of around 2 out of 10. But after treatment, the group exposed to the bright light was scoring sexual satisfaction scores of around 6.3. In contrast, the control group only showed an average score of around 2.7 after treatment.”

SAN JOSE, California — When it comes to map apps, consumers are finding plenty of fresh paths to digital navigation thanks to Google, Apple and a whole host of rivals.

Here WeGo, Waze, MapFactor, Mapquest, Scout GPS, Maps.Me and InRoute are just some of the apps that are challenging Google Maps and Apple Maps, which dominate smartphone mapping services, by focusing on new and novel features.

Google and Apple, though, aren’t content to stay in the slow lane of innovation. Both have added new features to their map apps in recent months, including enabling users to add interim destinations to go along with the ultimate stop on a trip. Google’s changes rolled out in an update to Google Maps this summer; Apple’s changes will be included in iOS 10, the soon-to-be released next version of its mobile operating system.

“Just open the app, enter a destination, tap the corner menu, and then click add a stop,” Google says in a blog post. “To rearrange the order of your stops, tap and hold the three-dot menu to the left of Add Stop and drag it to the position you want.”

The Apple Maps service has new features that seek to meld activities and services associated with a trip.

“Apps like OpenTable can integrate bookings right into Maps,” Apple says on its website. “Services like Uber and Lyft can make it easier for users to book a ride, without ever leaving the Maps app.”

And while this navigational arms race shifts into high gear, it’s become apparent the original stand-alone GPS devices are becoming stranded by the side of the road.

The proliferation of smartphone apps has reshaped a market once dominated by the stand-alone machines, such as TomTom, Garmin and Magellan. According to market research firm Berg Insight, worldwide shipments of personal navigation devices have decreased from 40 million units in 2008 to a projected 11 million by the end of this year. That number is expected to drop to just 7 million in 2019 — less than a tenth of projected smartphone map app users in that year.

“Most consumers are using their smartphones as their primary navigation and map system,” said Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, a market researcher. “Retailers, in a lot of cases, don’t really promote the stand-alone devices any more.”

The established map apps from Google and Apple offer a wide array of features, with the centrepiece being turn-by-turn navigation. And while the emerging apps also typically offer turn-based directions, they all attempt to offer niche features that also can go beyond the basics of the apps from the tech titans.

Google-owned Waze, whose service is separate from Google Maps, emphasises the social aspects of travelling, and its new features include improved ways to share your estimated time of arrival with others. It also provides quick access to frequent destinations.

“You can use Waze to find out about lots of things,” Bajarin said. “It pops up icons to tell you about traffic, police in your area, gives you suggestions on alternate routes. It’s the integration of social media with navigation.”

Other apps also seek to meld the drive with other services. Scout GPS emphasises social interaction, including the ability to message friends and family and share your location or destination with designated people. Here WeGo allows you to summon taxicabs or access a ride-hailing service.

And some apps focus on improving the driving experience. Mapquest, one of the first computer-based navigation guides, recently began allowing drivers to see speed limits on the street they’re travelling. Maps.Me has added navigation elements that take up less space on the screen, and the speed the vehicle is travelling has been added. InRoute, designed mainly for long road trips, offers the ability to add numerous stops — and drivers can easily select routes that avoid areas with hot temperatures or hilly terrain.

Saying it makes “cities easier to use”, Citymapper is geared to the daily commuter. In addition to vehicle navigation, the app has found a way to coordinate public transit and ride-hailing services so people can plan integrated trips.

Citymapper’s service can be especially handy in big cities with major transit networks, said Michael Tchong, founder of Las Vegas-based Ubercool Innovation, which tracks technology trends.

“The wave of the future is Citymapper,” Tchong said. “It integrates vehicle navigation, buses, subways, trains, Uber, Lyft all in one package. It will tell you whether the train you are on is running on time.”

Experts predict the pace of innovation will pick up even more for map apps.

“The map apps could become automated and start working as soon as you turn on your phone,” said Rob Enderle, an Oregon-based analyst who tracks the tech sector. “That way, if you’re driving, you don’t have to juggle a bunch of apps.”

And map apps also may become more closely attuned to their users. They might start taking note of what types of restaurants you visit and only suggest those when you’re looking for a place to eat, Bajarin said.

“The unique personalisation of mapping is the next step,” he said. “We are on that cusp.”

You as of Today My Homeland: Stories of War, Self, and Love
Tayseer Al Sboul
Translated by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari
East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2016
Pp. 89

Tayseer Al Sboul’s novella, “You as of Today My Homeland”, first published in Arabic in 1968, is both a very concrete historical novel and a parable. It is the story of a son of the village who goes to the city and gets an education but can’t make sense of the world around him. It is the story of the Arab citizen who wants to be part of building a great nation, but finds no inspiration, only defeat, hypocrisy, corruption and oppression.

The plot traces a defining period in contemporary Arab history, from the 1948 Palestine war to the 1967 Arab defeat, from a Jordanian perspective. It is heavily autobiographical, registering the milestones in Sboul’s life and their effect on his feelings and thinking. Sboul’s genius lies in having penned a very personal account that gives voice to the experience of his entire generation.

It is significant that the protagonist is named Arabi, whose name means “an Arab”, thus making him a symbol of the common man. Partly, Arabi narrates his own story; at other times, an omniscient narrator reveals his impressions and emotions. For Arabi, oppression begins at home. His father is a violence-prone tyrant who beats his wives and Arabi without mercy or reason. His brother, a hero of the Bab Al Wad battle, a Jordanian victory in the Palestine War, proves to be no better as he tries to dispossess his mother of her inheritance, her house, after the father dies. 

The story opens with the father cruelly killing a small white cat for snitching a piece of meat, leaving Arabi fearful and without appetite as the family gathers for the Ramadan meal. Instinctively, he sides with the victim but is powerless to act, instead exiting the house. This scenario recurs in different forms throughout the novella, as Arabi reels from one frustrating experience to another. Meanwhile, visions of violence, death and impotence cloud his nightmares.

At first, studying at the university seems to provide an outlet for Arabi’s intellect and dreams. He makes friends with whom he can discuss common ideas of freedom and justice, but when he joins a political party which claims to work for these aims, he is again disappointed. The party’s pamphlets bore him, and the leaders are non-inspirational and hypocritical. He is confused by the campus fights between nationalists and communists, and finds no answers about how to end colonialism or create democracy. What he does find is a great similarity between the security services and the party: “regardless of the animosity between them, they both interfered in my personal affairs”. (p. 31)

His experiences with women also leave him disillusioned. Alienation mounts. 

Only two things excite Arabi: hearing of people rebelling against unjust rulers, and the “sizzling reports of victories and great statistics” broadcast by Arab radio stations at the start of the 1967 war. (p. 35)

But then, when “things were over, Citizen Arabi walked through the streets aimlessly, meandering around like a dizzy fly”. (p. 37)

He went to the bridge over the Jordan River to see for himself what was happening, “looking for the last inch of what remained from my homeland… It was not just defeat; it was something else, much more… a nation drowning in sadness”. (pp. 42-44)

Yet, though overwhelmed by what had happened, Arabi in the end regains the moral high ground, realising that: “The problem was that this nation was forced to fight” by Israel and its aggression. (p. 46)

The narrative switches from voice to voice, from time to time, and place to place, without much explanation, echoing Arabi’s disorientation. Short, direct sentences convey an experience that is immediate, sensory, personal and political. There is also evocative imagery to remind that Sboul was a poet, but the overall effect is a bleak picture of fragmentation and alienation.

This style has led critics to identify “You as of Today” as one of the first modern Jordanian novels that had a wider impact on Arab writing in terms of style and content. In more recent times, Dr Ahmed Majdoubeh analysed the novella as post-modernist. One can only imagination the larger contribution Sboul might have made to literature, had he not been overwhelmed by the Arab defeat which led him to take his own life in 1973, at the age of 34.

This volume also includes two of Sboul’s short stories, which complement the novella by addressing human and Arab identity in other contexts. There is a prologue by the author’s son, Otba Al Sboul, and a very interesting and helpful introduction by the translator, Nesreen Akhtarkhavari, correlating the story events with Sboul’s actual life and explaining his references to ancient Arab history.

Akhtarkhavari highlights the current relevance of “You as of Today My Homeland”, since the young generation in the Arab world still faces many of the same frustrations to which Sboul so eloquently gave voice.

WASHINGTON — Google took aim Wednesday at the red-hot mobile messaging market, with a new artificial intelligence-powered Allo app that seeks to compete with popular rivals such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

But the app’s reliance on Google’s predictive software drew immediate criticism from privacy advocates who argued it could open up user data to law enforcement — with former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden warning people not to use it.

Google defended its privacy stand, saying users can opt for a more secure “incognito” mode if they prefer.

The app includes Google Assistant, an artificial intelligence programme which makes live suggestions as you chat.

“You no longer need to leave a conversation with friends just to grab an address, share your favourite YouTube video, or pick a dinner spot,” Google said in a blog post.

“Google Allo can help you make plans, find information, and express yourself more easily in chat. And the more you use it, the more it improves over time,” Google said.

The app will adjust according to whether its user’s style is usually an emoji or written response, for example.

Like rival apps, it has tools for personalising chat messages including changing the size of emojis and a choice of stickers. 

Keeping pace

Allo was unveiled by Google in May at the same time as Google Duo, an app for video calls, which hit the market last month.

The app is available on smartphones using Google’s Android system and Apple’s iOS.

Google faces a challenge in carving a place in a sector dominated by popular apps such as WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for some $20 billion in 2014 and which counts more than a billion users.

In July, Facebook said that users of its own Messenger application had also passed the one billion mark.

Apple has also moved to catch up with rivals, upgrading the messaging app in its latest iOS 10 launched last week.

Google and its earlier messaging app Hangouts had failed to keep pace in a market that also includes Snapchat, Skype and global rivals such as WeChat, Viber, Line, Kik and Telegram.

Privacy, encryption

Conversations in Allo will be encrypted, according to Google. And additional privacy will be offered with an “incognito” option in which messages will disappear after a fixed period.

But some analysts expressed disappointment that Google did not go further in agreeing not to store messages on its servers, where they can be accessed by authorities.

Christopher Soghioan, a privacy researcher with the American Civil Liberties Union, lamented that Google “decided that improving auto responses was worth making all messages accessible to law enforcement”.

Snowden, the former US intelligence contractor wanted for leaking National Security Agency documents on surveillance, said in a tweet, “Don’t use Allo”.

A later tweet from Snowden called Allo an “app that records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request”.

Google argues that the “smart” features of the application require “data processing” and that the tech giant needs to store chats to improve responses.

“We’ve given users transparency and control over their data in Google Allo,” a Google statement e-mailed to AFP said.

“Our approach is simple — your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it. You can delete single messages or entire conversations in Allo. 

“We also provide the option to chat in Incognito mode, where messages are end-to-end encrypted and you can set a timer to automatically delete messages for your device and the person you’re chatting with’s device at a set time.”

TIRANA — The two five-year-old Albanian bears carry physical and mental scars from their days of mistreatment and captivity — Pashuk has marks from the tight chain on his neck, while Tomi is an alcoholic.

The pair are temporarily staying in Tirana zoo after they were rescued from their jailers, amid a new drive to liberate the Balkan country’s cruelly caged brown bears.

There are up to 250 of them roaming free in Albania’s mountains, according to the international animal rights group Four Paws. But another several dozen, between 50 and 80, were taken from the wild as cubs.

Displayed in cages in restaurants or shackled on beaches, the bears’ role is to amuse and attract tourists and well-heeled customers — who can pose with the animals for 1 euro ($1.1) per photograph.

Tomi’s former owner, who runs a restaurant 80 kilometres north of Tirana, allowed customers to serve their new furry friend beer and “raki”, the traditional local tipple.

“Coffee and alcohol, there was nothing better to wake him, as with my clients,” the businessman, aged around 40, told AFP, declining to give his name.

Tomi, who now aggressively paces up and down, will on Monday be sent with Pashuk and another female bear to neighbouring Kosovo, which has built a “bear sanctuary” after facing a similar problem.

“Tomi is always stressed and this could be explained by his withdrawal from alcohol,” said Sajmir Shehu of Four Paws.

In March, Albania’s authorities made a deal with Four Paws pledging to liberate its bears and adopt a lawmaking private possession of wild animals a crime against the environment, punishable by prison.

Until now, fines of 20 to 30 euros for keeping these animals were hardly a deterrent. But Albania wants to draw more tourists — and does not want to raise controversy over animal abuse.

Environment Minister Lefter Koka insists the time of impunity is over: “Cruelty to animals cannot be a tourist attraction.”

“We have already identified more than 50 bears in cages,” Koka told AFP.

Several of them have already been sent to parks and sanctuaries in other European countries, while two cubs are due to go to Germany.

But what about the dozens of others, who are incapable of rediscovering a fully wild life?

These animals are “stressed, passive, they bite, they have lost all reflexes to feed themselves, they are sad”, said Zamir Dedej, the director general of Albania’s Agency for Environmental Protection.

Dancing bears

“Our space is limited and we cannot keep them here long,” said Mirjam Kastrati, director of Tirana’s small zoo, which is surrounded by concrete towers.

A park would cost more than 4 million euros, an exorbitant sum for Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe. 

Koka is, however, determined to carry out his “Bear Forest” project, which he envisages in the Dajti mountain, 10 kilometres east of Tirana.

The tradition of exhibiting captive bears has a long history in the Balkans. In Serbia, a common phrase to disperse a curious crowd is: “What’s going on? Is a female bear dancing?”

Although such capture was prohibited in Albania under dictator Enver Hoxha, the period of anarchy that saw communism collapse in the early 1990s opened the door to the practice. 

Nature, along with factories, was looted. Pheasants as well as eagles — the emblem of the country — have almost disappeared from the mountains. Like bears, they were officially protected. Yet, no one protested.

Koka says citizens need educating if Albania is to preserve and restore its rich wildlife — and it seems changing mindsets could take time.

“The Table of the Bear”, a chic restaurant in Tirana, draws members of the city’s elite and has welcomed former US first lady Laura Bush among its most famous guests.

Before sitting down to eat, it is fashionable to be photographed with Mark and Liza, aged 22, who for a decade have known only their cage.

Men over 40 who are plagued with the omnipresent of generalised anxiety disorder are more than twice as likely to die of cancer than are men who do not have the mental affliction, new research finds. But for women who suffer from severe anxiety, the research found no increased risk of cancer death.

That finding, presented Tuesday at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Congress in Vienna, emerges from the largest study ever to explore a link between anxiety and cancer. It tracked 15,938 Britons over 40 for 15 years.

Even after researchers took account of factors that boost the risk of cancer, including age, alcohol consumption, smoking and chronic diseases, men with a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder were 2.15 times as likely to die of cancer than were those with no such diagnosis.

Generalised anxiety disorder — a condition marked by excessive, uncontrollable worry about many areas of life — affected women more commonly than it did men. Among women in the large cohort studied, 2.4 per cent suffered from the disorder. Among men in the cohort, 1.8 per cent did.

The authors of the new research acknowledge that the findings do not reveal how cancer and anxiety are related, and do not show that anxiety causes cancer. Men with anxiety may engage in behaviours that increase cancer risk. But the two diseases may also spring from common origins, including, possibly, higher rates of systemic inflammation.

Whatever the relationship, says the study’s lead author, the new findings identify extremely anxious men as a population whose mental and physical health should be closely tracked.

“Society may need to consider anxiety as a warning signal for poor health,” said study lead author Olivia Remes of the Cambridge University’s Institute of Public Health. “With this study, we show that anxiety is more than just a personality trait,” but rather, a disorder linked to real and serious health risks.

Imperial College psychiatrist David Nutt, who was not involved in the new research, said the intense distress suffered by those with anxiety comes with insomnia and widespread physical stress.

“That is bound to have a major impact on many physiological processes, including immune supervision of cancerous cells,” said Nutt, a former president of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

“As a psychiatrist who used to run one of the very few clinics in the UK specialised in the treatment of people with severe anxiety disorders, these results do not surprise me,” Nutt added.

It is like medicine dosage — it has got to be just right. Too little won’t cure you and too much will hurt you. Technology innovation must be fast but not too fast, at the risk of becoming a nuisance instead of a benefit.

Recent manufacturers misfortune is here to prove that too fast can be harmful to makers and consumers alike.

So Samsung has just had issues with some of its new flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone bursting into flames while being recharged. It is to be pointed out, however, that hardly a handful of units, for each million units sold, are affected. The Korean company is taking corrective action with a massive recall.

Last July a driverless Tesla car killed its passenger because of a flaw that made it to over speed. World number one carmaker Toyota has also had to do vehicles recall not long ago. Last August, it concerned some 300,000 vehicles recalled to “replace both rear suspension arm assemblies”.

Luckily for companies like Microsoft a “recall” to fix less-than-perfect software products is always easier than with cars or smartphones, for no physical action and dramatically expensive action is required. All that Microsoft has to do, whenever certain aspects of a hastily deployed new release of MS-Windows of MS-Office are involved, is to send users an update or a quick fix via the Internet — et voilà.

Naturally, minor software imperfections have less serious consequences than battery defects that cause a machine to go up in flames, or cars that cause accidents and hurt people, or even medicine that is not enough tested and has unpredictable side effects. However, the concept, in theory, is the same. Why doesn’t the industry take the time that is necessary to make safe, well tested, flawless products? For it definitely has the means to do so. Why, when it comes to high-tech and electronics, are equipment and software getting so complicated overnight?

Well, actually we all know why the industry doesn’t take the time; it’s simply to remain competitive and to achieve higher profits. So the question rather is “how come government regulations do not impose more rigorous measures in terms of quality control?”

Any responsibility on the consumer side? There may well be some.

We always want more and we want it now. Smartphones, computers and cars with more features and functionality, faster processors, better cameras, fancier cars, batteries with longer life, we never seem to have enough of them. It is actually a vicious circle whereby the industry keeps feeding us with these and we helplessly fall in the trap, always demanding more. Did you say addiction?

But again, and as the title of this article implies, a wiser global strategy would simply consist not of giving up on improving products, designing better ones or giving consumers innovating products, but by releasing them at a more reasonable frequency, by taking the time to bring them somewhat closer to perfection, or at least with no major flaw.

There is another consumer complaint that is often heard and it has nothing to do with products flaws; it is the time to adapt to innovation. Things are really going too fast, by any measure. I recently had the chance to test drive a new car in Amman; a high-end luxury SUV. Whereas I loved the car, I found that it has so many new gadgets, features, options, screens, bells and whistles of all kinds — many of them having nothing to do with the pure, essential automotive requirements — that even for the tech-head in me it was just too much. I was thinking about the time it would take the average driver to learn and to master all these innovations, to put them to good use; and how long it would take before most of them will break or fail.

I still doubt it that any industry is going to slow down innovating and manufacturing. This is just the way it goes. We just have to adapt.

Sleep irregularities may be tied to a variety of health problems, such as diabetes and obesity, that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, a leading US doctors group says. 

The risk may go up when people get too little sleep, or too much, according to a statement from the American Heart Association (AHA). 

“We do not know the optimal amount of sleep needed to minimise the risk of heart disease,” but people who get less than seven hours a night or more than nine hours may be more at risk than their peers who fall somewhere in the middle of that range, said lead statement author Dr Marie St-Onge of Columbia University in New York City, in an e-mail.

Previous research suggests that sleep irregularities can increase people’s risks for a variety of cardiovascular disorders, such as clogged or hardened arteries, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and stroke as well as metabolic problems such as high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes that all contribute to cardiovascular disease. 

“There is certainly a vicious cycle that may be going on with sleep and chronic diseases,” St-Onge added. “Bad sleep can increase the risk of obesity which then increases the risk of sleep disorders.”

Much of the scientific research about sleep and heart health focuses on insomnia or sleep apnoea. 

People are diagnosed with insomnia when they have difficulty falling or staying asleep for at least three nights a week for three or more months. 

Sleep apnoea is diagnosed when someone has an average of five or more pauses in breathing, which can last seconds to minutes, per hour of sleep. These pauses are most commonly due to a narrowed airway.

Often, these sleep issues are tied to two other health problems: diabetes and obesity. Some studies have found sleep can influence what people eat and impact their risk of obesity, for example. 

But more research is needed to see how sleep influences weight over long periods of time, according to the AHA statement. 

Longer studies might also help explain how sleep variations influence cholesterol levels, diabetes, blood pressure or other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. 

It’s also unclear whether treating sleep disorders could lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

“The problem is that chronic diseases, like cardiovascular disease, develop gradually,” said Kristen Knutson, a researcher at the University of Chicago who wasn’t involved in the AHA statement. 

“So it’s possible that someone could be on the path toward hypertension or heart disease and not know it because it’s early in the process,” Knutson added by e-mail. 

Still, if poor sleep can speed the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, it makes sense for people to seek help for sleep irregularities sooner rather than later. 

 “My suggestion for patients is if they don’t feel they are sleeping well, they should raise the issue with their doctor themselves; don’t wait for your doctor to ask you about your sleep,” Knutson said. 

About 50 to 70 million US adults regularly don’t get enough sleep or suffer from a sleep disorder, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute estimates. 

It’s a problem that’s been getting worse over time. For example, in 2009, about 29 per cent of adults reported getting not enough sleep, compared with about 22 per cent in 1977. 

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society recently advised that adults get at least seven hours of sleep nightly to promote overall health.

“Heart disease is only one way things can go wrong, and poor or too short sleep can send people into a spiral,” said Till Roenneberg, of Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany.

“Sleeping too short and even more important — sleeping outside the time provided by the body clock — can support metabolic diseases and weight gain, which can lead to more creating difficulties, which lead to bad sleep sending you back into the loop,” Roenneberg, who wasn’t involved in the AHA statement, added by e-mail.