Sleep less, live longer

"There is an old idea that people need eight hours of sleep per night, which have no scientific basis for the gold at the end of the rainbow," said Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego, led the study, published in a recent issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. "It's an old wives' tale."

The study was not designed to answer why sleeping longer may be harmful or whether people could extend their lives sleeping less.

But Kripke said it was possible that people who sleep more tend to suffer from sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing disorders focuses on the heart and brain. He also speculated that the need for sleep is linked to food, where fewer people want to be better for them.

The study has been aroused criticism and warnings that the sleep experts say that the main problem in America has been a lack of sleep habits, I did not sleep too much.

"None of this says that sleep is killing people," said Daniel Buysse, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh and president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

"You need sleep as much as you need to feel awake, alert and attentive the next day," said Buys. "I am much more concerned about the people themselves short-changing sleep that people who sleep too long. "

Insomnia produces a variety of health consequences that were not measured in the study, critics said.

"The amount of sleep you get the effect you are alert, the risk of accidents, how to perform at work and at school," said James Walsh, president of the National Sleep Foundation, an organization advocating for a better sleep habits. "There is more to life than how long you live."

The study used data from a comprehensive study by the American Cancer Society from 1982 to 1988. Women sleeping hours 8, 9 and 10 a night were 13 percent, 23 percent and 41 percent higher risk of dying, respectively, than those who slept seven hours, according to the study. Men sleeping hours 8, 9 and 10 had a night of 12 percent, 17 percent and 34 percent greater risk of dying within the study period.

However, sleeping five hours a night increases the risk for women than 5 percent, and for men, 11 percent. Among those who slept only three hours a night, women had a 33 percent increase in death, and men had an increase of 19 percent, compared with those who slept seven hours.

The study also found that taking sleeping pills every day increases the risk of death by 25 percent.

"It seems that there is no mortality risk of having insomnia," said Kripke.

He recommended that people should not routinely take pills to get eight hours of sleep. Recognizing that the pills used from 1982 to 1988 are not the same pills are used today, Kripke said, "no evidence that the pills today are safe, but they do the best information on whether the Sleeping pills are safe for prolonged use. "

Kripke, whose study was funded by federal tax dollars, said the doctors 'recommendations' that everyone gets eight hours of sleep per night may have been influenced in part by drug companies make sleeping pills. He recalled the report of the public relations firm represents Ambien Medicine, who gave the money to the National Sleep Foundation to warn people about insomnia "public health crisis" as part of a marketing campaign.

Both Buysse and Walsh have served as paid consultants to manufacturers of sleeping pills, but both denied being influenced by the paper. Walsh said most researchers had accepted consulting fees from companies, because "99 percent of the funds to support this type of research is that drug companies."

Buys, who wrote an accompanying editorial Kripke said more research was needed to identify what was the link between sleep and the risk of death. The study was based on reports from people about their own sleep habits that may be defective. When people are asked how long they sleep, they usually state how much time they spend in bed, Buys said.

Donald Bliwise, a psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta, said studies have shown that when people were allowed to sleep all you want, with no signs of alarm clocks and watches that often sleep 14 to 15 hours per day during the early days.

"Everyone," Bliwise said, "going to sleep."

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