How much sleep do I need and is more than eight hours really that dangerous? | World Defense

How much sleep do I need and is more than eight hours really that dangerous?

BLACKEAGLE

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New research has suggested that people who sleep for more than eight hours a day are more likely to have a stroke, adding to a wealth of advice and information about the optimal time to spend in bed.

The new warning may seem farfetched, but it comes from a comprehensive study carried out at Cambridge University on the sleep patterns of more than 10,000 people. Those who got eight hours had a 46 per cent greater than average stroke risk.

Oversleeping (usually defined as more than nine hours a night) has previously been linked with health problems like diabetes and obesity – yet few consider eight hours to fall into that bracket.

Sure enough, the National Sleep Foundation recently published new guidelines, produced with a team of medical scientists, to try and pin down exactly how much sleep we need.

They defined the ideals, by age group, as follows:

Newborns (0 - 3 months): 14-17 hours per day

Infants (4 - 11 months): 12-15 hours per day

Toddlers (1 - 2 years): 11-14 hours per day

Pre-school children (3 - 5 years) 10-13 hours per day

School age children (6 -13 years) 9-11 hours per day

Teenagers (14 - 17 years) 8-10 hours per day

Younger adults (18 - 25 years) 7-9 hours per day

Adults (26 - 64): 7 - 9 hours per day

Older adults (65 years+) 7-8 hours per day

Despite first appearances, the foundation probably not recommending an amount of sleep likely to make people have strokes.

The latest study does not make clear whether extra sleep is causing health issues or simply an indicator or symptom of underlying conditions.

Professor Kay-Tee Khaw, of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health and the study’s senior author, said “further research” was needed to establish what was “happening in the body to cause this link”.

And Dr Madina Kara, research manager at the Stroke Association, said the study did not amount to evidence that too much sleep led to stroke, and urged anyone with concerns about their health to speak to their GP.
How much sleep do I need and is more than eight hours really that dangerous? - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent
 
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Right. Yet another "this thing is dangerous for you" article. I don't know why people even bother reading these since it's complete crap anyway. If you beleive all these experts then quite frankly it's impossible that you are alive since everything is dangerous and will lead to premature death.
 

DeltaForce103

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Correlations such as this are based on data obtained from surveys conducted with a control group, but they do not provide a scientifically conclusive explanation of the mechanism responsible for the phenomenon. This study employed a sample size of 10,000 people, so the results should be representative of the average person. The distinction that should be made here is that the study found those who slept over 8 hours have a higher rate of stroke. It does not state that sleeping over 8 hours causes stroke. The article itself mentions the most plausible explanation, sleeping more hours could be a symptom of ill-health and not necessarily exclusive to it.

Right. Yet another "this thing is dangerous for you" article. I don't know why people even bother reading these since it's complete crap anyway. If you beleive all these experts then quite frankly it's impossible that you are alive since everything is dangerous and will lead to premature death.

Quite a bit of shady and even outright discredited scientific research finds its way into tabloids and the media in general, but often this is due to the incompetence and liberal wording of the journalists, not the scientists involved.
 
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You make a very valid point Delta. It might not be so much about the research but more about how the results are being used. And in a lot of cases you get these "this will kill you" articles because people will click on that link... and that is all the journalist needs to get his job done. Doesn't matter if anyone reads further than 1 sentence into the article, the pageviews are what matters.
 

timelord731

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I typically sleep seven hours, 12-7. It seems to work pretty well for me.
 

wahmed

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I had a really weird system when my husband was studying. I used to sleep late in the night and wake up late. I'd be sleeping more than enough but I'd still feel groggy. Now that I have a routine I feel fresh
 
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I had a really weird system when my husband was studying. I used to sleep late in the night and wake up late. I'd be sleeping more than enough but I'd still feel groggy. Now that I have a routine I feel fresh

Any routine is good for the body. The human body is incredibly good at adjusting to different situations, and that adjustment is a lot faster if the body knows that change is coming.
 

pwarbi

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I'd certainly say this is something only the individual knows himself and it can vary from one person to the next. Personally I can get by with 6 hours sleep and 8 hours at the weekend and that's a routine I've had all my life, other people are different. Its whatever works best for you.
 

KimberlyD

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In a small way I guess I can understand where that study came from. People with weaker hearts tend to sleep a lot because they hearts are unable to pump sufficiently enough to sustain them. However, on the other hand... your body knows how much rest it needs to function. I say, as long as sleeping more then 8 hours is not a regular thing you are OK. Best thing to do is when you are aware, then wake up. Don't try to stay in bed or go back to sleep, typically your body will wake up when it is ready but you will try to fight it because you want to remain asleep. You become aware before you open your eyes, so when aware... get up.
 

Pinoy Jade

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Time to change my habit, i sleep around 5-6 hours a day only that is why i have these lots of pimples and i have poor skin tone. i guess it affects, and lastly i am becoming weak because of sleepless night.
 

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I'm of a different understanding, however. Isn't the quality of sleep more important than the number of hours you sleep? Sometimes, I sleep for 8 hours but wake up feeling sleepy. There are also times when I sleep for only 5 hours but feel so energetic throughout the day. By quality sleep I mean the kind of sleep that's either dreamless or devoid of waking moments.
 

KimberlyD

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@xTinx, I think they play hand in hand. You have to have good quality sleep as well as enough of it. I too have experienced "power naps" and restless sleeps... I love the power naps but dread the restless sleep. Restless sleep is most common when it is a drug induced sleep. They say it is because you do not dream and the mind has to go into dream state before it and your body can truly rest. Not sure on that, but that is what I have heard.
 
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