Study Shows People Who Sleep 8 Hours Die Sooner than those who Sleep Less

San Diego: Findings from a recent UCSD study released yesterday have awakened a flurry of controversy. Cheryl Clarke (02-24-06)
Findings by UCSD psychiatrist and nationally known sleep researcher Daniel Kripke challenge the long-held recommendations from many health organizations and the National Sleep Federation that people need eight hours of sleep to maintain good health.

Related Article: Don't Waste Your Breath

We will lose 2 hours and 50 minutes of life per day for this excess sleep of half an hour. For this reason it is found that people who are not early risers are usually short-lived. more

The UCSD study analyzed responses that 1.1 million people gave to an American Cancer Study questionnaire in 1982. Six years later their answers were compared with their death rates.

The findings showed that people who regularly slept eight hours were twelve percent more likely to die within the six-year period in which the study took place. They were four to five percent more likely to die than those sleeping six hours. Even those sleeping five hours had lower death rates than individuals who slept eight hours.

And those who sleep for nine or ten hours a day have a mortality equivalent to people who are moderately obese, somewhat more than all the other sleeping groups, the research concluded.

"We don't know what the causal factors are," Kripke said in an interview. "But it's possible that sleeping too much, like eating too much, is bad for your health. And it might be true that a little bit of sleep or sleep restriction, like reducing your diet, could be good for your health."

The study and it's findings has been attacked by the "sleep industry" which makes billions of dollars selling drugs to put people to sleep and does not want people to think sleeping less than eight hours is a more healthy lifestyle than their drug-induced sleep...