A recent study conducted in the United States of America has revealed that individuals who sleep too little or too much face significant health risks, including an increased chance of early death. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study found that those who do not get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night have a 29% higher risk of premature death from any cause.
“These findings provide new evidence that irregular sleep patterns over a five-year period may elevate the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular (CVD) disease mortality,” stated the research team, led by Kelsie Full, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The study analyzed sleep and health data from nearly 47,000 individuals aged 40 to 79. Participants were enrolled between 2002 and 2009, with follow-up surveys conducted between 2008 and 2013.
Researchers categorized participants based on their sleep “trajectories,” which reflected changes in their sleep patterns over time. For instance, those in the “long-short” trajectory slept excessively at first but had insufficient sleep later, while individuals in the “short-long” trajectory experienced the reverse pattern.
