Sleeping For Less Than 4hrs And More Than 8hrs ' Raises The Risk Of Early Death ~ Scientists

Getting too little sleep is a well known health hazard, raising the risk of a host of conditions, including obesity and heart disease.

But, now a team of scientists have warned getting too much sleep can also be bad for the heart.

Their findings reveal a fine line between a healthy night's sleep and shut eye habits that could increase the risk of early death.

Anything less than four hours sleep is deemed detrimental to a person's cardiovascular health.

A lack of sleep is known to be linked to stress responses that increase heart rate, blood pressure and the secretion of the hormone adrenaline - all risk facts for heart disease.

Yet, the new study, by experts in Norway and Taiwan, found those people who sleep for more than eight hours a night also faced a higher risk.

However, it is not yet known why spending more time between the sheets negatively impacts on the heart.

Scientists revealed sleeping less than four hours a night increases the risk of heart disease by 36 per cent, while sleeping more than eight increases the risk by 28 per cent

The study identified no increased risk with sleeping between four and six hours a night, or between six and eight hours.

Yet, researchers found the risk overall was greater for women than men.

Study author Dr Linn Beate Strand, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said: 'Our results show that enough, but not too much sleep, is important for a healthy lifestyle.'

Doctors asked 392,164 adults in Taiwan who came in for medical checkups between 1998 and 2011 how much they slept at night.

During a follow-up period, the scientists discovered that 711 of those patients died of cardiovascular disease.

The study found that the risk of heart disease increased 50 per cent for those who slept less than four hours a night, as compared to participants who slept between four and eight hours.

Those people who slept for shorter periods of time, had a less favorable risk factor for heart disease.

But even after adjusting for those factors, the risk was still found to be 36 per cent greater.

It is not known precisely why less sleep increases the heart disease risk.

However, less sleep is known to be associated with stress responses that increase heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of adrenaline.

All of those functions are known risk factors of cardiovascular disease.

Furthermore, sleep deprivation has been linked with the secretion of inflammatory responses.

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