Too Much Sleep May be as Dangerous as Too Little

In a new study from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, researchers discovered that older adults with extreme sleep durations had a dramatically reduced health related quality of life in comparison to those with more moderate sleeping habits. The study followed nearly 4,000 people over the age of sixty for three years. The study concluded that participants who slept less than five hours per night or more than ten were much more likely to have health problems and score lower on mental acuity tests.

The mental impairment that the test subjects experienced due to excess sleep may be just as dangerous on the road as sleep deprivation, a common cause of automobile and trucking accidents. It will be interesting to see how the scientific community processes this data. We may see a new wave of trucking legislation stipulating maximum daily sleeping periods for truckers.

More info at the National Sleep Foundation here.

The abstract for the study may be found here from the Sleep Journal.