Sleeping for less than six hours may double the chance of dying from a heart attack or stroke, a new study has found. According to the study, people with metabolic syndrome, like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity combined, need more sleep to survive, the Sun reported. Those with risk factors who slept under six hours a night were 2.1 times more likely to die of heart disease. For those who got more sleep, the risk of death was more modest.
Dr Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, of Penn State College of Medicine, told The Sun: “Taking care of your sleep is important if you want to lower your risk of heart disease or stroke.”
Researchers randomly selected 1,344 adults with an average age of 49 and asked them to spend one night in a sleep laboratory. They found that 39.2 per cent of the participants were found to have at least three of the risk factors, that when clustered together are known as the metabolic syndrome.
For the study, the cluster included body mass index higher than 30 — the standard definition of being obese, as well as elevated total cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar and triglyceride levels, the Daily Mail said. During an average follow-up of 16.6 years, 22 percent of the participants died. Those with metabolic syndrome who clocked more than six hours of sleep time in the lab were about 1.49 times more likely to die of stroke during the follow-up period.
