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CEOs, politicians and other high achievers (we’re looking at you, Hillary Clinton)
may only need an insane three to five hours of sleep a night. But
normal folk require the optimal eight. Right? Not exactly, according to a
glut of new research that shows Americans are on average sleeping less
than they used to — and that seven hours might actually be the better
span to aim for.
“The lowest mortality and
morbidity is with seven hours,” Shawn Youngstedt, a professor in the
College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University
Phoenix, told the Wall Street Journal.
“Eight hours or more has consistently been shown to be hazardous.”
Experts still generally recommend the range of seven to nine hours
nightly for healthy adults, but the ideal number seems to have dropped
ever so slightly. It’s why both the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has funded a partnership with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
— the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project — to discern how to best
update recommended sleep guidelines in the coming year, and why the
nonprofit National Sleep Foundation is doing the same.
The CDC currently suggests seven to eight hours a night for healthy adults, but, a spokesperson tells Yahoo Health, “As more evidence is presented by the scientific community, it is expected that these recommendations may change.”
The CDC currently suggests seven to eight hours a night for healthy adults, but, a spokesperson tells Yahoo Health, “As more evidence is presented by the scientific community, it is expected that these recommendations may change.”
