Sleep linked to heart woes

People who sleep less than six hours a night or more than eight are more likely to suffer heart problems than people who sleep between six and eight hours.

A US study confirms the conclusions of previous, smaller studies, and is based on what researchers describe as a nationally representative sample of 3000 people covering five separate heart ailments and their links to sleep duration.

The subjects for the study were people over age 45 who participated in a survey of health issues in US households known as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Subjects were asked to describe their sleep patterns and were also asked if they were ever told they had congestive heart failure, heart attack, coronary artery disease, angina or stroke.

People who said they got too little sleep each night were twice more likely to have a stroke or heart attack and 1.6 more likely to have congestive heart failure than people who slept between six and eight hours nightly, the researchers said.

Great People Sleep Less? Six to eight hours per day is the average amount of sleep a person needs. That's about one-third of a lifetime! As a population, we sleep about 1 to 1.5 hours less than we did 100 years ago. Scientists say that sleeping 7 – 8 hours a day is normal, if you sleep less, your health can suffer from that. Though sleep requirements vary from person to person - some people are naturally short or long sleepers.

Some sources claim that the legendary artist Leonardo Da Vinci was able to stay awake and alert almost 22 hours of every day, all the while working on brilliant artworks and inventions. He slept only 1.5 - 2 hours a day taking a nap 15 - 20 minutes for every four hours that he was awake.

Nowadays this sleeping system is called polyphasic sleep. Its followers try to use it and say that the system works fine for them. However its opponents say that da Vinci sleeping habit is just a myth, there are no trusted sources to confirm this fact about great artist.

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Thomas Jefferson is considered to be a polyphasic sleeper. He slept only 2 hours a day.

Though, in letters to Doctor Vine Utley (1819), Thomas Jefferson writes about his sleep habits. We can conclude that his sleep was not very regular, he would go to sleep at different times (often late into the night), he would always devote at least 30 min. to creative reading before sleep, he would fall asleep later if the reading was of particular interest, and he would regularly wake up at sunrise.

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Sir Isaac Newton needed 3-4 hours of sleep daily.

He worked so long and hard, often without sleep for days that he became ill from exhaustion.

~ Isaak Newton Biography by Famous Lives