REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU STAYING IN BED WAS GOOD FOR YOU!
by Hazed
I love it when a news story confirms my personal beliefs and habits. A new study has shown that having seven or more hours of sleep each night boosts the benefits that a healthy lifestyle gives to your heart.
A team in the Netherlands carried out research which tracked heart disease and strokes in more than 14,000 people (men and women) for more than ten years. At the end of the study, about 600 people had had a stroke or suffered from heart disease, and 129 had died.
The study analysed the lifestyles of all the participants and found, as you would probably expect, that deaths were less likely in people who exercised regularly, ate healthily, didn’t smoke and only drank in moderation. Observing all four of those “healthy” behaviours was associated with a 57% lower risk of heart disease and 67% lower risk of dying from stroke or heart disease.
So far, so uncontroversial!
But when they added a fifth factor to the lifestyle factors - seven or more hours of sleep each night - the beneficial effect was amplified to a 65% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and an 83% lower risk of death.
In other words, having a good night’s sleep made all the other healthy lifestyle choices work a lot better.
So stop telling me I have to get up!
