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Too Much, Too Little Sleep Linked to Stroke Risk
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 "Or you may be looking at a psychosocial profile," Qureshi said. "People who have depression tend to sleep longer."
As for too-brief sleep, "in experimental models, it has been shown that if you do not get enough sleep, the risk that you will die increases," he said. "Both sleep and the quality of sleep are important for survival."
There might be some factors specific to postmenopausal women, said Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, head of the division of epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
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"Women who sleep less than six hours, all kinds of things happen to the hormonal system," she said. "Lots of studies clearly show that it is detrimental, that lots of stress hormones get released."
And sleeping longer than normal might be related to depression, Wassertheil-Smoller said, in agreement with Qureshi.
"People who are depressed tend to sleep longer," she said. "Depression is related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke."
Simply setting the clock to sleep an allotted amount of hours is not a solution to the problem, Wassertheil-Smoller said. "If a woman is not sleeping long enough, she can try stress reduction and other methods to get more sleep," she said. "If a woman is habitually sleeping more than nine hours, she can discuss it with her doctor. She should also act to lower the known risk factors for stroke, especially high blood pressure."
More information
To learn more about the importance of sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 7/17/2008
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SOURCES: Jiu-Chiuan Chen, M.D., Sc.D., assistant professor of epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Chapel Hill; Adnan I. Qureshi, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and radiology, Univerity of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis; Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., head, division of epidemiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City; July 18, 2008, Stroke, online
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