You’re probably aware that too little sleep can be detrimental to your health, but did you know that too much sleep can also have unwanted effects for your health?m So if too little sleep is harmful, and too much sleep can be problematic, how can we be like Goldilocks and get the right amount each night? According to researchers, there is a specific amount of sleep we should aim for. We discuss that sleep sweet spot in today’s blog.
How Much Sleep Should I Be Getting?
It’s important to remember that when it comes to sleep, what works for one person may not work for another. Some young and healthy individuals can thrive on six hours of sleep, while others need at least nine hours to feel like they wake ready to attack the day. However, researchers wanted to see what sleep amount seemed to be ideal for the most people. To do this, researchers conducted a study involved 500,000 volunteers. Researchers developed a system for assessing organ function relative to actual age to see how these organs aged based on the amount of sleep people were getting.
After looking at the data, they found that the ideal sweet spot for sleep each night was between 6.4 hours and 7.8 hours. More or less, and changes were seen on the molecular level that accelerated perceived organ age. People who hit this range regularly had better functioning brains, hearts, immune systems and other vital organs, according to researchers.
“The key point is consistent sleep time, around 6 to 8 hours per day,” said Junhao Web, an assistant professor of radiology at Columbia University and lead author of the study. “We know that’s going to do good for your overall health.”
Another interesting finding from the study was that women may need more sleep than men. One of the models they used that looked at brain health found that men seemed to do best with 7.7 hours of sleep on average, whereas women’s brains showed the least aging when they averaged 7.82 hours of sleep per night. Researchers believe hormones, social factors and physiological factors may be the reason women benefit from a little more sleep than men.
Researchers also found that their models showed that when it comes to sleep, you can have too much of a good thing. Constantly getting more than eight hours of sleep was associated with faster perceived aging of the body. That said, researchers noted that these findings could be because poor health is making people sleep longer. However, depression and other mental health issues contributing to excessive sleeping can lead to perceived organ aging despite having otherwise standard physical health. They also noted that most people don’t face this issue when it comes to sleep, and that it’s those who consistently don’t get enough quality sleep that could face the biggest issues with their overall health.
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