A study reveals that sleeping for less than at least 4 hours or more than 8 hours every night can increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease which includes heart attack. The researchers said that elderly people and women are most in danger in the study.
WebMD reports that the research, which was issued in the International Journal of Cardiology, involved 392,164 Taiwanese adults wherein they had a check health between 1998 and 2011. The scholars asked them how long they normally sleep during the night.
The outcome shows that those who slept less than 4 hours every night were 50 percent more likely to suffer from heart disease. Those who slept more than 8 hours each night had a 53 percent risk of getting a heart attack.
However, there is no increased risk for those who slept between 4 to 6 hours every night as likened to those who sleep between 6 and 8 hours. They also found out that about 711 of them had died of cardiovascular disease during their follow-up period.
"This is the single largest study that has looked at how sleep duration affects the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease," Linn Beate Strand from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and lead author of the study said. "Our results show that enough, but not too much sleep is important for a healthy lifestyle."
Science Daily states that the recommended sleep for elderly with ages 65 and above is 7 to 8 hours a day and adults with ages 20 to 64 is 7 to 9 hours a day. Teens must sleep for about 9 to 10 hours each day while school-aged children at least 10 hours a day.
The pre-school aged children recommended sleep is 11 to 12 hours a day. Meanwhile, the newborns must sleep to 16 to 18 hours a day.