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Sleep Heart Risk: Seven Hours of Sleep Best for Your Heart |
Seven is the magic number when it comes to sleep.
Regularly sleeping less than seven hours a day is linked to an increased risk for heart disease. The same researchers from the University of West Virginia also found that regularly sleeping more than seven hours a day is associated with increased heart disease risk.
Following more than 30,000 adults, all of whom were healthy at the start of the study, they found that short and long sleep duration were associated with increased heart disease risk even when they controlled for age, sex, race, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, and other risk factors.
Adults who slept less than five hours a day (including naps) were more than twice as likely to develop heart disease. Those who slept more than nine hours or longer a day were one and a half times more likely to develop heart disease.
Why does sleep less or more than seven hours increase the risk? The researchers said it might be helpful for people to discuss their sleep habits - including changes in sleep duration - with their doctors. Something to sleep on, for sure.
From cbsnews.com
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