Optimal Sleep Duration

But what is enough, and is more better? Just this year, researchers found what appears to be the magic number of hours to sleep, on average, every night to minimize risk of cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Sleep fewer hours, and mortality goes up; sleep any longer, and mortality goes up.

To maximize health and longevity, is the optimal sleep duration six hours? Seven hours? Eight hours? Nine hours? Or ten hours? And for those of you thinking “What about 12 hours?” No.

Well, it’s not six. And it’s not ten. It’s not eight, either. The optimum amount of sleep to get, on average, every night to live longest is seven hours of sleep, according to this important new study this year.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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• Ikehara S, Iso H, Date C, Kikuchi S, Watanabe Y, Wada Y, Inaba Y, Tamakoshi A; JACC Study Group. Association of Sleep Duration with Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease and Other Causes for Japanese Men and Women: the JACC Study. Sleep. 2009 Mar;32(3):295-301.

Image thanks to anemoneprojectors via Flickr.

• brain health
• cancer
• cardiovascular disease
• heart disease
• Japan
• lifespan
• longevity
• mortality
• sleep
• stroke