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Permanently too much sleep can sustainably shorten our lives
When people sleep little, they are tired, often irritable, and have difficulty concentrating. That too little sleep is not healthy for us, most people know, but did you also know that too much sleep can be bad for you? For people who like to sleep a little longer over the weekend, just those extra hours of sleep could have a negative effect on their health.
Too much sleep could be unhealthy because people who sleep more than nine hours a night tend to die earlier. This was the finding of researchers from the University of Sydney. For example, the same risk applies to people who spend less than 150 minutes a week on physical activity. The results of their study published the scientists in the journal "PLOS ONE".
Long sleep is more likely to have a negative effect on health and is associated with the increased likelihood of premature death. (Image: Phase4Photography / fotolia.com) Risk factors of too much sleep should not be underestimated
Should a lack of exercise be added to the above two factors, a kind of triple effect arises. The current study proves that the effects of such behaviors should be taken very seriously. According to the researchers, the risks are by no means to be underestimated. The risk posed by the risk factors is roughly comparable to alcohol consumption or unhealthy eating habits, study author Dr. Melody Ding told the British newspaper "The Daily Mail".
Big Australian study brings new insights
In the current study, scientists studied the lifestyle of people in Australia. The investigation involved 231,048 Australians. The subjects were 45 years or older. All participants were asked to answer a lifestyle survey. The collected values were used as so-called baseline data. Afterwards the scientists considered all unhealthy habits of the subjects, which could increase the health risk. These included, for example, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
Many unhealthy ways of life shorten our lifetime
The results of the research showed that unhealthy sleep habits (eg sleep times of less than seven hours or more than nine hours), prolonged sitting and little to no exercise increase the risk of dying prematurely. If a person sleeps less than seven hours a night on average, smokes a lot and often drinks alcohol, the risk of premature death increases fourfold. Other unhealthy combinations are, for example, too little exercise and too much sleep or too little exercise, a lot of sitting, smoking and alcohol consumption, explained the doctors. It is clear that both people who sleep too much or too little have a lower life expectancy.
Understand combined risk factors
In the future, if public health programs are to be created to help reduce the massive burden and cost of ill health, the combination of risk factors needs to be explored. It makes no sense to consider all factors individually, says the co-author of the study, Professor Adrian Bauman in a press release on the current study results. More than 38 million people around the world are dying from non-communicable diseases. These include, for example, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. This number even exceeds deaths from infectious diseases. A generally better understanding of the combination of risk factors and their effects could help us more effectively tackle the problem, says Prof. Bauman. (As)