Too little sleep is bad for your health, but too much could be worse

Sleeping for too long is worse for your health than a lack of sleep, a new study has suggested.

Researchers found people who regularly sleep for fewer than seven hours a night or more than nine hours a night were increasing their risk of death.

The study revealed that those sleeping for fewer than seven hours were 14 per cent more likely to die from any cause than those getting the optimal seven to eight hours of shut-eye.

A new study has found that regularly sleeping more than nine hours a night is bad for long term health.Credit: Getty Images

But it also showed the increased risk of death rose to 34 per cent among people who regularly slept for nine hours or more a night.

Experts from the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, analysed data from more than 2.1 million participants across 79 separate international studies.

Men were at greater risk of death than women from sleeping too little, while women faced a greater risk than men from sleeping for too long each night, the research said.

The study found men who slept for less than seven hours a night had a 16 per cent higher risk of death, and those who slept for eight hours or more had a 36 per cent increased risk.

Meanwhile, women with short sleep durations had a 14 per cent higher risk, and those sleeping for longer faced a 44 per cent increased risk.

The researchers said differences were likely to be due to hormonal, behavioural or cardiovascular differences between men and women.

Dr Gyorgy Purebl, director of Semmelweis University’s Institute of Behavioural Sciences and a co-author of the study, said: “As a society, we are experiencing a sleep epidemic. Even though awareness has grown, our behaviour hasn’t changed much in the last decade.”

The authors of the study said sleep deprivation was a growing global health concern, and that millions of people were regularly sleeping too little because of work demands, exposure to digital screens and stress.

Shift workers and those with irregular schedules were particularly affected, it said.

Chronic sleep loss is also linked to a range of health issues, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and a worsening immune system.

In a second study, the Hungarian researchers looked at the impact of sleep duration on the risk of stroke and subsequent death.

They found that people sleeping for five to six hours a night had a 29 per cent higher risk of stroke than those sleeping for seven to eight hours and that they were 12 per cent more likely to die because of the stroke.

Those sleeping more than eight hours had a 46 per cent higher risk of stroke and were 45 per cent more likely to die from it.

Dr Balazs Gyorffy, head of the department of bioinformatics at Semmelweis University, and senior author of both studies, said: “Stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability worldwide.

“Our findings make it clear that sleep duration should be considered in stroke prevention strategies to reduce the burden on healthcare systems and improve population health.”

The Telegraph, London

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