How long do you sleep each night? According to a survey conducted in 2015 by the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (INSV), the French would sleep around 7:05 a.m. during the week and 8:11 a.m. during the weekend.
Researchers at the Seoul National University College of Medicine (in Korea) are precisely interested in the ideal duration for a night’s sleep. For this, they worked from medical data concerning 133,608 South Koreans aged 40 to 69.
Verdict? Researchers found that men who slept less than 6 hours a night were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, characterized by a waist circumference greater than 94cm, high blood triglycerides, hypertension, blood sugar high and low “good” cholesterol (HDL) levels. In women, a sleep time of less than 6 hours “only” favored an increase in waist circumference.
Sleep time and metabolic syndrome
If too little sleep has health consequences, too much sleep time is not beneficial either. Thus, the South Korean researchers discovered that sleeping more than 10 hours a night also favored the development of a metabolic syndrome in men… but also, this time, in women.
“We find that, in women, the metabolic syndrome is rather linked to too long a sleep time, while it is rather linked to a too short sleep time in men” observe the scientists, who published their work in the specialized journal BMC Public Health.
Metabolic syndrome is defined by a set of physiological signs (high blood sugar, hypertension, overweight, etc.): it is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. In France, 20% of adults are affected.
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