Too much or too little sleep can be bad for health, study suggests

Most of us these days have a very busy lifestyle because of which we sleep for fewer hours than are required. And when the weekend comes along we sleep for half the day to compensate for sleeplessness. But a recent study conducted at the Seoul National University College of Medicine says that compared to individuals who slept six to seven hours per day, people who slept fewer than six hours were more likely to have metabolic syndrome and higher waist circumference. Sleeping more than 10 hours was associated with metabolic syndrome and increased levels of triglycerides in men, and with metabolic syndrome, higher waist circumference, higher levels of triglycerides and blood sugar, as well as low levels of ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL-C) in women.


“This is the largest study examining a dose-response association between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome and its components separately for men and women. Because we were able to expand the sample of our previous study, we were able to detect associations between sleep and metabolic syndrome that were unnoticed before. We observed a potential gender difference between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome, with an association between metabolic syndrome and long sleep in women and metabolic syndrome and short sleep in men,” the lead researcher said. So, when are you planning on improving your sleep cycle?