American Heart Association’s checklist to measure cardiovascular health is updated, now called Life’s Essential 8™, adding healthy sleep as essential for optimal cardiovascular health. Other health and lifestyle factors in the checklist, which were part of the previous, 7-item scoring tool, are nicotine exposure, physical activity, diet, weight, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure. The new sleep metric suggests 7-9 hours of sleep daily for optimal cardiovascular health for adults, and more for children depending on age.