Making small changes to promote healthy sleep can dramatically improve your health and longevity, including leading to a 42 percent lower risk of heart failure, finds a new study. The new findings add to growing research linking sleep habits with heart health. A healthy sleep pattern for most people, at least in terms of heart health, means seven to nine hours of sleep, little or no insomnia, no snoring, early bird rising, and little or no daytime sleepiness. Researchers from the United States looked at data from 408,802 UK Biobank participants ages 37 to 73. Those with the healthiest sleep pattern had 42 percent lower risk of heart failure overall. Heart failure risks decreased in early risers by 8 percent, seven- to eight-hour sleepers by 12 percent, infrequent insomniacs by 17 percent, and infrequent nappers by 34 percent.(i) In another meta-analysis of 474,684 patients, sleeping fewer than six hours or …