Excessive sleep linked to increased risk of stroke

Participants who slept more than nine hours a night had double the risk of having a stroke compared to those who slept the standard seven hours.

The results also showed that people who slept less than five hours a night were three times more likely to have a stroke. The study was observational, which means it couldn’t prove whether too much or too little sleep increased the chance of having a stroke.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that everyone should get at least seven hours of sleep each night. However, many fail to get even that much, while about one in twenty sleeps more than nine hours.

Sleeping too much is linked to numerous health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Dr Christine McCarthy, a sleep specialist who led the study, said: “Our results suggest that sleep problems should be the focus of attention in stroke prevention.”

It hasn’t been clear why too much sleep increases the risk of stroke, but scientists have speculated that it could be an indicator of other health problems: a sedentary lifestyle, anemia or depression, which are known to increase the risk of stroke, or a higher likelihood of obesity.

On the other hand, too little sleep is also known to increase the risk of having a stroke due to higher blood pressure, inflammation, and an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In the latest study, published in the journal Neurology, scientists analyzed data from 5,000 people who participated in the INTERSTROKE study, which tracked patients and compared controls from 32 countries.

The participants were on average about 62 years old. They were all asked to complete a questionnaire about their sleep, including how many hours they slept, its quality, whether they napped and snored, snorted or had trouble breathing during sleep.

The results showed that in the stroke group, 151 people slept longer than nine hours. By comparison, in the non-stroke group, only 84 people slept that long.

The data also showed that in the stroke group, 162 people got less than five hours of sleep, while that dropped to 43 in the non-stroke group.

The scientists also found that people who snorted while sleeping – a sign of sleep apnea – were three times more likely to have a stroke than those who didn’t.

The data also showed that people who snored were 91 percent more likely to have a stroke.

Dr. McCarthy added: “Our results not only show that individual sleep problems can increase a person’s risk of stroke, but having more than five of these symptoms can lead to a fivefold increased risk of stroke compared to those who do not have any sleep problems.” “.

The limitations of the study were that all sleep data was self-reported.

Participants were not required to wear the wrist device at night for any period of time in order to record their actual sleep patterns.

They were also not asked to provide records of when they snorted or snored while sleeping, or to show a doctor’s certificate confirming that they had sleep apnea.