People not having sleep for the extended duration of 6 hours may become vulnerable to the factors that can lead to stroke, diseases of the heart and diabetes. This is quite evident from a recent study conducted by a group of Korean scientists. These risk causing factors which mainly include presence of excess fats in blood and stomach, high level of cholesterol and blood sugar, are together known as the metabolic syndrome. Those who are not having adequate sound sleep must become aware of this fact and try every possible means to have a good sound sleep in order to escape from the impact of this problem.
As per Dr. J.Y.Kim, who is a leading author on this subject has warned that because of this metabolic syndrome people can get expose to chronic and life threatening diseases. His team has now so far conducted studies on about twenty six thousand adults for over two years and their findings show that people who are not having sleep for minimum six hours do have the chance of forty one percent to become prey to this syndrome. Whereas people having adequate sleep of 6-8 hours are become less susceptible to this syndrome. Their findings are based on the results of two surveys that are conducted on the basis of lifestyles. Both these surveys included questions of sleep habits and were held for a single time. The one held in between the year of 2005 to 2008 while the other held in between the year of 2008 to 2011.
Participants in these surveys have to undergo medical examinations and have to share their clinical history. From these studies it was found that 560 people which comprises of twenty two percent of the overall participants are having this syndrome. The results of the findings of these surveys are printed in the Sleep journal. There it was clearly specified that sleep deprivation is thirty one percent responsible for increasing the chances of excess fat in the stomach and increasing the level of blood sugar. The findings also revealed that due to lack of adequate sleep there is a fifty six percent possibility of having hypertension in comparison to those having sound sleep for sufficient hours.
The major shortcoming of this study is the overall reliance on the facts placed by the participants on the basis of their lifestyle behaviors, clinical conditions and sleep habits. This study also failed in obtaining accurate sleep data from the participants as well. But according to Kristen Kurston, who is a researcher in the Chicago University, the findings of the study are quite relevant to the similar other findings which have been successful in obtaining a link between sleep deprivation with that of metabolic syndrome. He further supported the findings of Korean scientists on the ground that is a well conducted study and is quite essential for measuring sleep duration of the people before they are having the syndrome. He further suggested people to adopt healthy lifestyles in order to avoid this problem.
Image credit: Cecilia Lim