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Agood night's sleep is crucial to our health and well being. The American Heart Association is also affirming that it's also one of the best ways to good heart health. That is worth our awareness towards heart disease as it kills more Americans than any other cause of death.

To show the important link of sleep and a health heart, The American Heart Association is saying sleep is its key calculation. Sleep joins other important factors such as: diet, exercise, blood lipids, blood glucose and blood pressure.

The health experts and other institutions say adults should have seven to nine hours of sleep every night, with not many to no interruptions. Our bodies need all that time to begin repairing and resetting; doctors say without it, our heart will pay a price.

The research also shows that people who sleep less than six hours a night could triple their risk of heart disease. The trouble is not enough sleep in the deep stage; this is when blood pressure and heart rates drop as much as 20 percent, reducing the stress on the heart. Also, throughout this sleep period the brain releases growth hormones to help the heart recuperate from the demands it faces all during the day.

Cardiologist, Deepak R. Talreja, M.D. with Sentara Healthcare said that sleep is key to the heart health, but regrettably, today over half of all adults do not get enough sleep and sleep deprivation is more common now than it was in past generations. He said, "As our society has gotten busier and busier and we're all available 24/7 with devices that connect us all the time, most Americans don't get enough sleep." He sees it now taking a toll on many people. "When someone is sleep deprived, it affects their overall functional status, their mental state, they tend to have more problems with depression, pessimism, anxiety. Then there are direct effects on inflammation, on heart rhythm issues, and on the presence of heart disease."

Dr. Deepak R. Talreja says to his patients the path to better sleep is with the right environment. Their bedrooms should be cool, quiet, it is okay to have white noise machines going to cover up noises from outside. Then you need to find the best time to go to bed and continue with that. He said, "Set an alarm to remind you, just like you have a wake up alarm, a go-to sleep alarm can be very helpful."

Try to stay away from electronics before bedtime, you should turn them off or silence them to avoid interruptions throughout the night. If you do wake up during the night, do not go to your smartphone. He said, "We're tempted to pull our devices quickly if we're having a little bit of a hard time sleeping and look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or do things that one would introduce light to our environment, that will rev us up instead of us quieting down for the night."

Another good way of getting a good night sleep and is very important for us is exercise.

He said, "That way when it comes time for sleep, your body's ready for it. Someone who doesn't do anything physical during the day, they haven't really worn out their body so they're not ready to sleep."

Dr. Deepka Talreja said that one of his star patients who decided to change his ways, Severino Tiaba, works out daily and now goes to bed at nine.

He said, "Now that I'm getting older, it's routine. The kids are out of the house. It's just me and my wife."

Severino Tiaba decided to make many changes after he suffered a heart attack six years ago.

He said, "My chest was burning real bad. I had my wife take me to the emergency room because I felt like I needed to get checked out and it just got worse."

His near death experience persuaded Severino, who before the heart attack was a beer drinking, junk food cigar smoker, to do the 180 degree turn. He said, " I wanted to be around to see my grandkids."

Severino Tiaba then started to follow Dr. Deepka Talreja's medical advice to switch to more of a healthy diet to help his heart. Dr. Talreja always recommends a plant based eating plan that will decrease saturated fat, processed foods and sugar.

Severino loves the Mediterranean diet. He said, " I eat a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of grains. No more red meat, no more pork. So I eat a lot of cold water fish, salmon, mackerel, and poultry."

Severino decided to give up alcohol except an occasional glass of red wine, and he quite smoking cigars.

Dr. Talreja said, "The biggest risk factor for heart disease in this era is still smoking. Quitting smoking is by far the single most important thing a person can do."

Dr. Talreja said people are better able to help their heart health by changing gradually and with other peoples' help. He said, "First, introduce more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Cut down fried food and fast food, cut down soda. Pick specific goals you can achieve, and then pull other people in your life into it. If a whole family decides together they're going to eat more healthful, they're likely to succeed."

While heart disease is currently the number one killer, that can change. He said, "If we could get the average American to eat better, exercise, pay attention to their other risk factors, and sleep better. it would make a world of difference."