Too Much Sleep May Increase Risk of Stroke
Posted on: Saturday, 19 July 2008, 00:05 CDT
New research finds that postmenopausal women who regularly sleep nine or more hours per night may increase their risk of stroke.
The study, which ran from 1994 to 2005, involved 93,000 women 50 to 79 years of age from 40 locations within the United States.
Of the participants, 8 percent reported sleeping five hours or less each night, 27 percent reported getting six hours sleep, 38 percent reported getting seven hours and 23 percent reported sleeping eight hours. Only 4 percent reported sleeping nine hours per night, while 1 percent reported getting 10 hours or more.
After accounting for known risk factors for stroke, the researchers found the women who reported sleeping nine or more hours per night had a 60 percent to 70 percent higher risk of stroke compared with women who slept only seven hours per night.
"Whether it's because of sleep apnea or because of restless sleep or because of any number of things, we don't know," said epidemiologist Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York during a phone interview with Reuters. Wassertheil-Smoller was one of the researchers involved in the study.
"The study definitely does not say that for women who sleep longer, if they decrease their hours of sleep they'll be better off," she said.
It is not yet clear whether the study’s results apply to younger men and women, the researchers said.
The study further found an increased risk of stroke among women who slept no more than six hours per night. However, the effect was smaller, with an increased stroke risk of 14 percent compared with those sleeping seven hours per night, the most common sleep duration.
According to Wassertheil-Smoller, there are known harmful physiological effects from sleep deprivation that might be at work.
Results of previous research on sleep duration and the risk of coronary artery disease and stroke have been inconsistent.
A report about the study was published American Heart Association journal Stroke. An abstract can be viewed here.
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports
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