Many of us try, but often fail, to
get eight hours' sleep each night. This is widely assumed to be the
ideal amount - but some experts now say it's too much, and may actually
be unhealthy.
We all know that getting too little sleep is bad.
You feel tired, you may be irritable, and it can contribute to obesity,
high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease, doctors say. But too
much sleep? You don't often hear people complaining about it. But recently i became a victim of it. I complained to my friends how i have been sleeping too much lately. However, research carried out over the past 10 years appears to show that adults who usually sleep for less than six hours or more than eight, are at risk of dying earlier than those sleep for between six and eight hours. wow...
To put it more scientifically, there is a gradual increase in mortality risk for those who fall outside the six-to-eight-hour band.
Prof Franco Cappuccio, professor of cardiovascular medicine and epidemiology at the University of Warwick, has analysed 16 studies, in which overall more than a million people were asked about their sleeping habits and then followed up over time.
Cappuccio put the people involved into three broad groups:
• those who said they slept less than six hours a night
• those who said they slept for between six and eight hours
• those who said they slept for more than eight hours
His analysis showed that 12% more of the short sleepers had died when they were followed up, compared to the medium sleepers.
However, 30% more of the long sleepers had died, compared to the medium sleepers.
But not everyone agrees. Prof Shawn Youngstedt of Arizona State University carried out a small study involving 14 young adults, persuading them to spend two hours more in bed per night for three weeks.
They reported back that they suffered from "increases in depressed mood" as Youngstedt puts it, and also "increases in inflammation" - specifically, higher levels in the blood of a protein called IL-6, which is connected with inflammation.
The participants in the study also complained about soreness and back pain. This makes Youngstedt wonder whether the problem with long sleep is the prolonged inactivity that goes with it.
In all it has been known
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