People who do not get enough sleep are more than 1 of heart disease, Although the reasons are unclear, 2 said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to 3 heart attacks and stroke.
A 17-year analysis of 10,000 4 showed those who cut their sleep from 5 to five or less faced a 1.7-fold increased risk of death from all causes and more than 6 the risk of cardiovascular death.
"A third of the population of the U.K. and over 7 regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so it is not 8 ," Previous research has highlighted the potential health risks of shift work and 9 . But the study by Cappuccio 10 , which was supported by British government and U.S. funding, 11 to link duration of sleep and mortality rates.
The study 12 sleep patterns of participants aged 35-55 at two points in their lives— 13 and 1992-1993—and then tracked their mortality rates 14 .
The results 15 take account of other possible risk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol 16 , body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol.
Cappuccio said 17 longer sleeping could be related to other health problems such as depression or 18 .
"In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that 19 sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal 20 ," he said.