Is 6 Hours Of Sleep Enough?
If you think you are sleeping seven hours per night, like 1 in 3 Americans, there is every chance that you are getting just six. Based on the results of a single study, one could argue that even if you think you are getting 6 hours a night, chances are you are getting just 5, much lower than the recommended average. For adults, getting fewer than seven hours of sleep a night regularly has been linked with bad health, including weight gain, having a BMI of 30 or higher, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression. One recent study found that sleeping more than 6.5 hours was associated with decreased cognitive performance over time -- that is low, considering older adults are recommended to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Overall, researchers found that sleeping less than 4.5 hours and sleeping longer than 6.5 hours per night - along with a lower quality of sleep - was associated with cognitive decline over time. The 6 hours-of-sleep gr...