Objective Investigate the effect of insomnia on cardiovascular disease factors and offer the experimental evidence for treating cardiovascular disease with traditional Chinese medicine tranquillization methods. Methods Sixteen Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups named sleep deprivation (SD) group and normal control check(CC) group. Body weight and electrocardiogram were recorded and serum concentrations of melatonin (MT), endothelin-1 (ET-1), IL-6 and TNF-α were tested before SD and 2 days, 5 days, 7 days after SD. Results Body weight decreased in SD group while increased in CC group. Compared with CC group, body weight of SD rats decreased significantly in 5 days and 7 days after SD(P < 0.05). Compared with CC group, TNF-α increased significantly in 5 days (P < 0.05). With the time, heart rate accelerate and QTc were prolonged, MT decreased while ET-1, IL6, TNF-α increased significantly in 7 days after SD (P < 0.05). Conclusion Long term insomnia would decrease body weight and MT, while increase heart rate, QTc, ET-1 and inflammatory factors, which increase cardiovascular disease factors. It provided the experimental evidence for the study on traditional Chinese medicine tranquillization methods in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.