Late sleepers have an increased risk of stroke

02/26/2015

Long sleep could have a negative effect on the blood vessels and thus lead to an increased risk of stroke and other circulatory problems. This was the result of a recent study published in the journal "Neurology". Thus, the risk of having a stroke is 46 percent higher for people who sleep more than eight hours at night compared to average sleepers.

Stroke is more common in long-sleepers
It has long been known that lack of sleep has negative effects on health. Thus, people who sleep too little, gain weight more easily, have a poorer memory and are more likely to get sick due to their weakened immune system. Researchers around Yue Leng from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge University have recently shown that too much sleep can be unhealthy. Accordingly, late sleepers suffer a stroke more frequently than average sleepers.

Leng and her colleagues studied nearly 10,000 people between the ages of 42 and 81, and followed their habits and health problems for more than ten years. About two-thirds of study participants said they slept between six and eight hours at night. With every tenth, it was more than eight hours of sleep. As the researchers showed, the latter had a 46% increased risk of having a stroke than the average. The study participants, who slept less than six hours a night, were also more likely to have a stroke than the average sleepers. However, the difference was not statistically significant for them.

Causes a long sleep duration health problems?
"It's obvious from both our own study participants and the large amount of international data that there is a link between increased sleep duration compared to average and a greater risk of stroke," explains Leng. "What is far less clear, however, is the direction of this connection, whether more sleep is a symptom, an early indication, or a cause of cardiovascular problems."

People who are ill or who develop health problems usually have a greater need for sleep because their body is weakened. On the other hand, if sleep is too long, it may also increase the propensity for disease. A long rest period in a horizontal position may have negative consequences for the blood vessels. Previous studies have shown that late sleepers have elevated inflammatory levels in the blood and are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, thickened cervical arteries and atrial fibrillation.

Country sleeping could be an early warning sign for stroke
"Since those people who change their habits and initially need only a little sleep, eventually sleep longer, have an almost four times as high risk for a stroke as the average, the increased sleep could also be an early warning sign," quoted "Sueddeutsche. "The neurologist Alberto Ramos from the University of Miami. "These patients may want to reduce their risk of stroke and lower their blood pressure, for example."

Professor Kay-Tee Khaw, senior author of the study, sees the results as the basis for further research. "We need to understand the reasons for the connection between sleep and the risk of stroke. What happens in the body, so that this connection arises? Further research suggests that excessive sleep may prove to be an early indicator of an increased risk of stroke, especially in the elderly, "said the expert.

It is already known that the mean sleep duration on all continents and over the centuries has barely changed and is just over seven hours. (Ag)