Thinking of hitting that snooze button? Think again.

According to new research from the University of Warwick, regular oversleeping may be as dangerous to health as undersleeping.

Seven Hours Best

After controlling for other possible confounding factors (including  as age, sex, exercise, BMI, employment grade, marital status, blood pressure, cholesterol, and alcohol consumption) the researches could identify the effects  of sleep pattern changes over 5 years had on mortality rates over a decade later. The conclusion: seven hours’ sleep is optimal for good health, and both a decrease or increase can significantly impact on life expectancy.

Early Death Twice as Likely

Participants who increased their sleep habits to eight hours plus were found to double their mortality rates over the next 11-17 years; compared with those who maintained seven hours per night.

Seems like too much of a good thing may always have some repercussions! What do you think?

Source: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/sleep/sleep_2010_mortality_meta.pdf

Image from: http://suspended.tv/blog/2010/10/18/the-snooze-button/

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

About the author

Jamie

Related Posts

Fountain of Youth

  It seems science has at last discovered the fountain of youth. Or at least, if you’re mouse.   Ageing Backwards New gene therapy from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has succeeded in turning...

Vice for Longer Life

  Smoke, eat Fatty Foods, Drink—and live to see a hundred? A new study seems to think so! Smoke Your Way to One Hundred The study was undertaken by The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, on 500 men and women...

TV Shrinks Your Life Expectancy

We can probably all recall our mothers warning us not to sit too close to the TV, lest the radiation cause a host of afflictions later in life. Hair would fall out, skin would age, vision would fail. It could even take...