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When it comes to sleep, there are two categories of people out there. Those who believe that getting as much sleep as possible is the best thing that you can do for you body, and those who would rather do anything else than go to sleep and feel like they’re wasting time. Guess what? None of these categories are completely right. At least, this is what a new study, which the journal BMC Public Health recently published, claims.
It seems that too much or too little sleep are both very dangerous for our health. As a nation, the people of the United States do not get as much sleep as recommended. Prof of this stand official numbers according to which 50 to 70 million people in the country suffer from sleeping disorders. So, in order to reach a conclusion, researchers from the Seoul National University College of Medicine looked at 133,608 men and women in Korea, between 40 and 69-years old. They analyzed the amount of sleep they were getting and compared this with the health problems they had.
Sleep is still a problem all over the world
According to the study, men who slept for less than six hours per night had a higher risk of developing a metabolic syndrome. This included high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. This was in comparison with people who slept for about eight hours per night.
However, it’s interesting that those who slept for ten or more hours per night also had some increased health risks. They too had a bigger risk of developing a metabolic syndrome, and women were most likely to develop excess fat around the waist area. The researchers admit that the study is purely observational and that the results should not be taken as certainties. However, these results do add on the growing body of evidence that sleep indeed heavily influences our health.
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