How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
This means more you sleep better your health is..............
The first thing experts will tell you about sleep is that there is no "magic number." Not only do different age groups need different amounts of sleep, but sleep needs are also individual. Just like any other characteristics you are born with, the amount of sleep you need to function best may be different for you than for someone who is of the same age and gender. While you may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life. In fact, a 2005 study confirmed the fact that sleep needs vary across populations, and the study calls for further research to identify traits within genes that may provide a "map" to explain how sleep needs differ among individuals.
This is very nice research more sleep good for becoming slim…
The more we sleep the less our genes determine how much we weigh, while the less we sleep the more our genes impact - in other words, less sleep can contribute to people putting on the pounds, while plenty of sleep can help us stay slim, researchers from University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center in Seattle reported in the journal Sleep. The authors explained that prior studies had demonstrated a link between sleep and bodyweight. This study differs in that the researchers focused on what impact sleep has on genetics, and ultimately body weight.
Lead author, Nathaniel Watson, a neurologist, and team set out to determine whether how long people slept might modify genetic and environmental influences on BMI (body mass index). They gathered self-reported data from 604 identical twins (monozygotic twins), plus 484 fraternal twins (dizygotic twins) from the University of Washington Twin Registry. 66% of them were women, and their average age was 36.6 years.
The participants had given information on their sleep patterns, weight and height.
According to the authors, sleep duration was defined as:
Short sleep - less than 7 hours per night
Normal sleep - between 7 and 8.9 hours per night
Long sleep - at least nine hours per night
On average, the participants slept 7.2 hours each night.
The authors found that:
The participants who slept longer each night were slimmer than those who slept less.
1. Participants with short sleep duration had a higher genetic risk of a greater BMI
2. For those sleeping over nine hours per night, genetic factors accounted for approximately 34% of variations in weight
3. For participants sleeping less than 7 hours each night, genetic factors accounted for about 70% of variations in weight
4. For participant sleeping between 7 to 9 hours each night, genetic factors accounted for about 60% of variations in weight
New research-Sleep May Play Important Role in Heart Health
A good night's sleep boosts the benefits of a healthy lifestyle on the heart, according to a new large study from the Netherlands published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology on Wednesday.
The researchers found that not smoking, regular exercise, a healthy diet, and moderate alcohol consumption protects against cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, they also found sufficient sleep (defined as 7 or more hours a night) further increases the heart benefits of these four traditional healthy lifestyle habits.
Their analysis suggests the effect of sufficient sleep on heart-related deaths could be as strong as not smoking. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for diseases of the heart or blood vessels, such as coronary heart disease, stroke peripheral arterial disease, and aortic disease. Principal investigator Monique Verschuren, of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, says in a statement the importance of sufficient sleep "should be mentioned as an additional way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease."
She and her colleagues conclude that the public health impact of sufficient sleep "could be substantial. It is always important to confirm results," says Verschuren, "but the evidence is certainly growing that sleep should be added to our list of CVD risk factors. Short sleep has been linked to obesity, high blood pressure and other factors directly associated with cardiovascular risk, say the researchers. Another study published recently also suggests that sleep could be key to preventing type 2 diabetes. In their large population follow-up study, Verschuren and colleagues found that the combination of the four traditional lifestyle factors was linked to a 57% lower risk of both fatal and non-fatal CVD, and a 67% lower risk of fatal events. But when they added sufficient sleep to the four factors, the heart benefit increased further: the risk of composite CVD was 65% lower and the risk of fatal events was 83% lower. They defined "sufficient sleep" as 7 or more hours per night. If all the participants of the study were to follow all five healthy lifestyle factors, in theory, 36% of fatal and non-fatal CVD and 57% of fatal events could be prevented or postponed, conclude the researchers. The large study is called the Monitoring Project on Risk Factors for Chronic Diseases (MORGEN). The participants consisted of 6,672 men and 7,967 women aged from 20 to 65 who were free of CVD when recruited. The study followed them for an average of 12 years. Information about participants' lifestyle, such as alcohol consumption, physical activity, diet, smoking and amount of sleep was recorded between 1993 and 1997. They were then followed through national hospital and mortality registers.
The results, as expected, showed that each of the four traditional lifestyle factors (not smoking, healthy diet, exercise and moderate alcohol) was tied to reduced CVD risk. For instance, participants who on enrollment were following a healthy diet, doing enough exercise and drinking only moderate amounts of alcohol, had between 12% lower risk for fatal and non-fatal CVD for a healthy diet, to 43% for not smoking. The risk reduction for fatal CVD ranged from 26% for doing sufficient exercise to 43% for not smoking. The data for sleep duration also showed a link with CVD risk. For instance, sufficient sleep alone (without the other factors) reduced the risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD by around 22% and fatal CVD by about 43% compared with insufficient sleep. The analysis showed that the effect of sufficient sleep was the same as not smoking: they were both strongly and similarly inversely linked with fatal CVD.
Verschuren notes that 7 hours is the average sleep duration that "is likely to be sufficient for most people. She and her team carried out an earlier study on sleep quality that found people who did not get sufficient sleep (slept less than 7 hours) and rose feeling unrested in the morning had a 63% higher risk of CVD than people who had sufficient sleep. But those who woke feeling rested, even if they did not get the required 7 hours of sleep, did not have the increased risk.A report published in 2011 by the Mental Health Foundation suggests that insomnia is a major health concern in Britain. Overall, the report concluded that poor sleep increases the risk of poor mental health. The authors also said that the amount of sleep a person needs varies, and what is important is for people to find out how much they need and make sure they get it.
(Source-Mental Health Foundation)
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