Seven to Eight Hours of Sleep at Night Minimizes Risk of Heart Disease

This news is wake up jolt for all those who sleep for less than six hours during nights. What might this lead to- double the risk of heart disease, researchers say.

The finding as part of research executed by the team from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, found that duration of sleep could influence the onset of heart disease.

Less sleep at night promoted adverse metabolic conditions like high cholesterol, obesity and hypertension. With the three health evils in picture, could diabetes be far behind?

Also called metabolic syndrome, the condition could trigger the onset of diabetes, a well known lifestyle disease.

Having said this, it might be as bad for health if people slept longer than 8 hours. Researchers were of the opinion that more sleep could also promote metabolic syndrome. This fact came to light after researchers looked into the sleep habits of 1,214 adults between 30 and 54 where it was seen that sleeping longer than eight hours promoted the risks associated with metabolic syndrome.

Experts also inferred that those who woke up after seven to eight hours of sleep at night were fairly safe, as compared to those who were sleep deprived or those who slept too much.

Martica Hall, an associate professor of psychiatry at the university, said: "This relationship was strongest in the group of men and women who slept less than six hours per night. On average, the odds of having the metabolic syndrome were nearly doubled in men and women who slept less than six hours, compared to those who slept between seven and eight hours per night."

The same inference was drawn by a parallel study conducted by a group of scientists from Warwick Medical School in Coventry whose finding revealed that less sleep could promote metabolic syndrome and heart disease mainly due to imbalance in the hormones controlling appetite, triggered by sleep loss.

Source-Medindia
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