TODAY is World Heart Day, a global initiative to scale up the prevention of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. Cardio-vascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide and in Malaysia.

Most of us know about typical cardiovascular risk factors like smoking, an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. But there is another risk factor that lurks unknown to many, that affects a lot of people but is unrecognised and underreported: sleep deprivation.