Sleep Just the Right Amount

Sleeping too long or not sleeping enough may put you at risk for stroke. A new British study finds people that sleep more than 8 hours or less than 6 hours may be increasing their risk for stroke. The University of Cambridge looked at nearly ten thousand people with an average age of 62 for 10 years. One thousand participants of the bunch slept more than eight hours a night. These over sleepers were 46 percent more likely to have a stroke. Those who slept 6 hours or less each night had an 18 percent increased risk. The next step for researchers is to pin point what might be causing the elevated risk for long and short sleepers. Short sleep is already linked to obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure which are all risk factors for stroke. But finding the same association for longer sleepers is new.