We’ve all probably heard the advice from sleep scientists that seven to nine hours a night of shut-eye is optimum for healthy adults.
But recent research and the fact that most Americans are sleeping less than they did in the past have scientists debating current recommendations, the Wall Street Journal reports. And the findings so far suggest that getting both too little and too much can have detrimental effects on cognitive function and health markers.
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“The lowest mortality and morbidity is with seven hours,” Shawn Youngstedt, a professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University Phoenix, tells the paper. “Eight hours or more has consistently been shown to be hazardous.”
In an effort to revise sleep recommendations, a group of medical experts, in work partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will be issuing a report next year after reviewing the scientific literature, the paper says.
To read the complete Wall Street Journal story, go here.