A CDC study in the October issue of the journal Sleep reports that both short and long sleep durations are significantly associated with leading chronic diseases such as obesity, frequent mental distress, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The cross-sectional study analyzed survey data from more than 54,000 participants age 45 or older in 14 states. More than 64 percent of study subjects were optimal sleepers who reported sleeping seven to nine hours on average in a 24-hour period, 31 percent were short sleepers who reported sleeping six hours or less on average, and four percent were long sleepers who reported sleeping 10 hours or more.
