Sleep habits and death risk

People who sleep either too much or too little have a higher death risk than those who sleep for standard eight hours. Our sleep habits govern our overall health. Both too much and too little sleep can have ill effects on our system. Optimal sleep means consistently getting the amount that one needs, which again varies from one individual to another. Less than 7 hours and more than 8 hours of sleep are both linked to major health problems. According to their habits and health conditions, long and short sleepers can be sub-divided further into various categories. Short sleepers can include people who naturally sleep for a relatively short time, as well as people with insomnia or other problems that rob them of sleep time. And similarly, people who tend to sleep long hours may also have underlying health conditions, or may simply need that much sleep. Besides the hours of sleep, the quality of sleep can also be of major concern. People with irregular and poor sleep habits not only have a greater risk for diseases but can also have an increased mortality rate. To assess the impact of sleep habits on our health, researchers at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health reviewed a 22 years long study conducted on 21,268 twins (aged 18 years and above) who were asked about their sleep habits - including how long and how well they slept at night. The results showed that too much and too little sleep could lead to a shorter life span. On an average, men who slept less than 7 hours per night were 26 percent more likely to die during the study period than men who caught 7 to 8 hours of sleep. For women, the corresponding figure was 21 percent. Similarly, men and women who slept for more than 8 hours had death rates that were 24 percent and 17 percent higher, respectively. It was found that the sleep length per se was not the only reason for an increased risk of mortality. While it's not fully clear why both long and short sleepers had a higher death risk, the reasons were likely diverse. Factors like depression and undetected diseases were also likely to govern this sleep-mortality link. Sleep habits have also been linked to health conditions as serious as diabetes and heart disease in the past. Thus, optimising sleep could help in managing these disorders and also prevent early death.