Too much sleep more harmful than shortage of it

Specialists of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine conducted a thorough research to find out that an excess of sleep was much more dangerous to the human body than the lack of it. Ten hours of sleep a day may lead to the development of diabetes, heart disease, high and unreasonable anxiety and obesity.

It has long been estimated that the optimal number of hours of sleep for people over 45 years of age is from seven to nine hours. Following this schedule, one can greatly improve health and even defeat many chronic diseases.

The researchers have come to this conclusion by analyzing the medical records of 54 million Americans aged 45. Nearly a third of the subjects suffered from the lack of sleep (six hours or less). Two-thirds of the participants of the study followed the optimal duration of sleep (7-9 hours), and the rest slept for more than ten hours.

"The relationship between unhealthy sleep duration and chronic diseases is partly due to mental disorders and obesity," Janet Croft from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.