New Research: How Much Sleep is Enough?

What constitutes a good night's sleep? Conventional wisdom has always been that the human body needs at least eight hours of sleep every single night. Eight hours has been the golden standard for a healthy amount of sleep. However, experts are changing their view and some actually believe that eight hours is too much sleep and could actually be damaging to one’s health.

Everyone Knows What It Feels like to Get Too Little Sleep

There does not need to be a study done on what too little sleep feels like. Every single one of us has experienced this. When you don’t get enough sleep, you are tired, you are foggy headed, you get grumpy easily, and over time you start to see affects like weight gain, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Too much sleep on the other hand is something that very few people know anything about. Just ask yourself, when was the last time someone told you that they got way too much sleep?

Is There a Perfect Amount of Sleep?

New research based on studies that have been done over the last decade show that there is actually a sweet spot when it comes to the amount of sleep the human body needs. Researchers have seen that individuals who sleep for less than six hours or those who sleep for more than eight hours every night have a higher risk of dying than those whose sleep falls somewhere between the six and eight hour mark.
Studies done at the University of Warwick that included more than 1 million people broke individuals into three sleeping categories: individuals who slept less than six hours a night, those who slept between 6 to 8 hours a night, and those who have the luxury of sleeping more than eight hours every night.

Too Little Sleep Versus Too Much Sleep

The study showed that individuals who slept less than six hours had a 12 percent higher chance of dying than those whose sleep pattern fell in that sweet spot of between 6 to 8 hours. Surprisingly, 30 percent more from the group who slept more than eight hours died when compared to the medium sleepers.

For many, the result of the study was surprising. If the study was put in other terms, it basically showed that individuals who slept nine hours or more had the same risk of mortality as individuals who on a daily basis drink multiple units of alcohol. But how in the world can this be true? Is sleeping nine hours really that much worse than only sleeping five?

Is It Really Extra Sleep That’s Dangerous?

Researchers believe that individuals who sleep more than eight hours on a daily basis may do so because there is an underlying sickness that has not yet showed other symptoms. So it’s not really getting that extra hour of sleep that increases mortality. Instead, in many cases, there is a hidden illness that has only shown itself in an increased desire for sleep.

However, the results are not conclusive. The University of Arizona did a small study where a handful of students were encouraged to sleep for two hours more every day for three weeks. The result was that they experienced depression, inflammation, and back pain. Some believe that this proves that it is the increased inactivity associated with prolonged sleep that leads to increased mortality.

So, how much sleep is good for us? It seems, according to a member of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University Of Massachusetts Medical School, that the perfect number is seven hours. According to a poll done by the National Sleep Foundation, it appears that around the world on average people sleep for seven hours. It is something that is kind of natural for the human brain.

However, researchers are quick to comment that if an individual enjoys sleeping, they spend an extra hour or so in bed, and they feel good, they are probably doing just fine.

Informational Credit to http://www.slumberbump.com/