Do you enjoy sleeping in? Do you get more than eight hours of shuteye? You might be hurting your heart with your sleep. A massive new study found that too much sleep is extremely detrimental to your heart, even more so than too little sleep.
Extensive research of 11 existing studies with more than 1 million participants found the dangers of too little and too much sleep, especially when it came to cardiovascular health. The study’s lead researcher Epameinondas Fountas, cardiology specialty registrar at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, Greece, discovered a “sweet spot” for the best amount of sleep to get every night for a healthy heart.
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The new research suggests that people should get between six to eight hours of sleep daily. While most of us knew that sleep deprivation had negative effects on the body, the study found that too much sleep is actually worse.
The researchers made three groups: those who got less than six hours of sleep, those who got six to eight hours, and those who slept more than eight hours. Of the 1,000,541 adults who participated in published studies over the last five years, the group that got more than eight hours were more likely to suffer heart issues.
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The individuals who slept more than eight hours were 33 percent more likely to develop or die of coronary artery disease or a stroke. The people who slept less than six hours were 11 percent likely to have coronary issues.
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More than 40 percent of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep.
“Our findings suggest that too much or too little sleep may be bad for the heart,” said Dr. Fountas. “More research is needed to clarify exactly why, but we do know that sleep influences biological processes like glucose metabolism, blood pressure, and inflammation – all of which have an impact on cardiovascular disease.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that insufficient sleep causes Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression.
The research team who conducted the scientific study recommend to get between six and eight hours of sleep daily, exercise regularly, avoid alcohol and caffeine before bed.
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