Sleepyheads should reconsider their habit

Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a host of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night. People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night's sleep than 8-hour sleepers.

These findings, reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night's rest may not need to set aside more than 8 hours a night, study author Dr. Daniel Kripke told Reuters Health.

He added that "it might be a good idea" for people who sleep more than 8 or 8 1/2 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.

Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep - for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more, inform reuters.com

According to healthtalk.ca Researchers deciphered the data from approximately 1000 adults who took part in the National Sleep Foundation’s 2001 Sleep in America Poll. The study compared the rates of sleep problems in both long and short sleepers.

The final results suggest people who sleep more than 8 hours a night suffer similar problems associated with people who do not get enough sleep. The study appears in the journal of Psychosomatic Medicine and sheds new light the amount of sleep people get.

Researchers found that sleep problems were more common among those who sleep either less or more than 8 hours.

Among those problems: difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night, waking up too early, not feeling refreshed after waking up, and sleepiness during the day. Wrote researcher Michael Grandner of the University of California, San Diego, "Although it is unclear why long and short sleepers should have similar types of sleep complaints, these data challenge the assumption that more than 7 or 8 hours of sleep is associated with increased health and well-being," report safety1.blr.com