Gauracandra 1 Report post Posted February 15, 2002 Experts challenge study linking sleep, life span February 14, 2002 Posted: 3:47 PM EST (2047 GMT) By Rhonda Rowland CNN Medical Unit SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Eight hours of nightly sleep is not the health panacea you were brought up to believe, according to a study released Thursday suggesting a link between too much slumber and a shorter life span. Sleep experts immediately sought to debunk the conclusions as flawed and said they will only cause confusion. The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, included 1.1 million men and women and found the highest survival rate among those who sleep six to seven hours a night. The survival rate declines progressively among those who sleep eight hours or longer. "Our study shows the average sleep for Americans of seven hours per night is safest," said Dr. Daniel Kripke, who led the study. Kripke is a professor of psychiatry who specializes in sleep research at the Univ. of California, San Diego. "You don't have to sleep eight hours per night; it's safe to sleep five, six or seven hours." The study showed people who slept nine or 10 hours per night had a risk of dying similar to that associated with moderate obesity. Risk of death increased by 15 percent for those who slept eight hours a night, 20 percent for those who get 9 hours of sleep and 35 to 40 percent for those who sleep 10 hours a night. "This is a happy message for five, six, seven hour sleepers and insomniacs that there's nothing to worry about. This is reassuring," said Kripke. The National Sleep Foundation, which recommends eight hours of sleep per night for optimal health, immediately attacked the study's findings and said they can do nothing but cause the public unnecessary confusion and concern. "The data can't be used to establish a cause and affect relationship because there are flaws in the study," said Dr. Russell Rosenberg, director of the Northside Hospital Sleep Medicine Institute in Atlanta. "You can't tell how people rated their own sleep quality and looked back at their sleep, which is a subjective reaction to how much sleep they were getting." The study included more than 1 million people who were friends or relatives of American Cancer Society volunteers and was designed to investigate causes of cancer. It included questions about sleep and sleeping pills. The data was collected through questionnaires between 1982 and 1988. "No one should change their sleep habits based on this study," said Rosenberg. "Many studies have shown insomnia leads to reduced test performance, school performance, increased risk of accidents and effects on the immune system. There is a wealth of information documenting those effects." Kripke disagrees. "I don't believe the body of science supports that argument," he said. "They have no data showing long sleep is safer." The new study also showed a 25 percent increase in death risk for daily sleeping pill users, but Kripke said that has less meaning now because sleeping pills sold today are much safer than those used 20 years ago. Kripke said people who now average 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night can be reassured they're getting a safe amount of sleep and from a health standpoint, there's no reason to sleep longer. "There are a lot of reasons to get adequate sleep and mortality is only one outcome." said Rosenberg, "I would rather have five years of high quality life versus walking around like a zombie." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jahnava Nitai Das 2 Report post Posted February 15, 2002 I find it funny that the people who recommend 8 hours of sleep for better health have no special data to support their claim, yet they attack the people who say 7 hours of sleep is better. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jagat 1 Report post Posted February 15, 2002 I noticed this news item in the Canadian newspapers also. I had been looking at "Snapping" (the Bible of the anti-cult deprogrammers) recently and noticed that one of their arguments was that cults deprived their followers of sleep. Jagat Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gauracandra 1 Report post Posted February 16, 2002 If nothing else, by reducing sleep from 8 hours to 7 hours you will free up an additional 365 hours every year. If you go from age 20 to 75 (55 years), this amounts to an additional 20,075 hours freed up or an additional 836 days. Actually I recall a friend at work say that in casinos in Las Vegas they pump much purer oxygen into the hotel rooms. This allows people to sleep on like 5 hours, wake up completely refreshed, and then go hit the casinos to lose more money. He mentioned that whenever he goes to Las Vegas he can sleep on like 5 hours in one of these hotels and get straight up feeling great. Gauracandra Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tarun 6 Report post Posted February 24, 2002 Either I'm going blind or I saw no mention of age groups. Growing children require more, adults gradually less. Another obvious factor: How much we rest/sleep is inversely proportional to: Our enthusiasm for staying awake (for life itself). Like during BhAgavatam class, japa.. Another even more important though unmentioned factor: Eyes Wide Shut. mano-rathenAsati dhAvato bahiH Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avinash 0 Report post Posted February 27, 2002 I have one suggestion to increase your life span. Run as much as you can and as fast as you can. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, moving clocks run slow. So, the time that will be spent for you will be less compared to that spent for those who do not run that much. Everybody ages according to his own body clock. So, your life expectancy will be more. What do you think of this idea? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avinash 0 Report post Posted February 27, 2002 May be that some people want 8 hours sleep, but from my personal experience, I find it too much. I sleep for less than six hours and I do not feel tired when I wake up. Many people are in bed for a long time not necessarily because they are sleeping. Often, they do not like to leave bed even after they have woken up. I do not find any need of that. Once I have woken up, why should I not leave the bed and do other works? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Streetstraw 0 Report post Posted January 28, 2003 (ati - too much) na caikAntam anaznataH na cAti-svapna-zIlasya jAgrato niva cArjuna yuktAhAra-vihArasya yukta-ceSTasya karmasu yukta-svapnAvabodhasya yogo bhavati duHkha-hA ============ This could have been posted on Atma's Insomnia or Gauracandra's Short Power Naps thread as well. ********** Good Night's Sleep for Healthy Heart by Geoffrey White AP CHICAGO (Jan. 27) - Too little sleep - or too much - may raise the risk of developing heart disease, according to a study of nearly 72,000 nurses. Women who averaged five hours or less of sleep a night were 39 percent more likely to develop heart disease than women who got eight hours. Those sleeping six hours a night had an 18 percent higher risk of developing blocked arteries than the eight-hour sleepers. And nine or more hours of shuteye was associated with a 37 percent higher risk of heart disease. Researchers could not explain that finding, but suggested those women might have slept more because of underlying illnesses. "People should start thinking of adequate sleep not as a luxury but more as a component of a healthy lifestyle,'' said Dr. Najib Ayas, a sleep disorders specialist who was at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston when he led the study. The researchers suggested that getting enough sleep may be nearly as important to heart health as eating right and exercising. And they pointed out a recent poll that found that about one in three Americans has long-term sleep deprivation. The study was published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. The researchers could not say for certain whether the findings apply to men, too. But other research strongly suggests so. Previous studies of men and women found short-term sleep deprivation can raise blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol, lower glucose tolerance and lead to variations in heart rate - all precursors of heart disease. Phyllis Zee, director of the sleep disorders center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said the findings show that doctors should be asking their patients about sleep habits. And if those patients are losing sleep by choice, "they may want to rethink their priorities,'' Zee said. Researchers examined 10 years of data on 71,617 participants in Harvard's Nurses' Health Study, which tracked female nurses for a variety of studies. The women were ages 45 to 65 and had no sign of heart disease at the outset in 1986. Over 10 years, 934 of the women had nonfatal heart attacks or died of heart disease. The study relied on the nurses' recollection of their sleep patterns rather than directly measuring their sleep. The researchers were also from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, all in Boston. 01/27/03 17:15 EST Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
