Study Links 8 Hours' Sleep to Shorter Life Span

"There's an old idea that people should sleep eight hours a night, which has no more scientific basis than the gold at the end of the rainbow," said Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego who led the study, published in today's Archives of General Psychiatry. "That's an old wives' tale."

The study was not designed to answer why sleeping longer may be deleterious or whether people could extend their life spans by sleeping less. But Kripke said it is possible that people who sleep longer tend to suffer from sleep apnea, a condition in which impaired breathing puts stress on the heart and brain. He also speculated that the need for sleep is akin to the need for food, in that getting less than people want may be better for them.

www.juiceguy.com