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Recent research has uncovered significant health benefits associated with just one additional hour of sleep each night among college students. The small study, published in Sleep Health, found that extending sleep duration by an hour resulted in decreased sleepiness, lower blood pressure, improved glucose regulation, and better hydration, offering new insights into the widespread benefits of adequate sleep for young adults.
The idea that a good night’s sleep is essential for health is not new, but the specific impacts of extending sleep duration, particularly among young adults, have been less clear. Previous research has established a link between short sleep duration and various health issues, including high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and lower physical activity levels. College students, with their unique schedules and lifestyle, often experience disrupted sleep patterns, making them an ideal demographic for studying the effects of sleep extension.
“There have been some studies showing that young adults with short sleep duration (<7 hours/night, the minimum recommended duration by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for optimal adult health and wellbeing) report feeling sleepy and have poor physical health, including higher systolic blood pressure and heart rate, higher hemoglobin A1C, and lower levels of physical activity,” explained study author Gina M. Mathew (@GinaMMathewPhD), a postdoctoral associate in public health at Stony Brook Medicine.
“There is a lack of research that examines whether attempting to lengthen sleep is feasible in college students, a population that’s at high risk for insufficient sleep, and whether such a sleep extension intervention would improve physical health. We therefore examined effects of a 1-week, 1-hour nightly sleep extension intervention in a sample of 12 college students on cardiac and metabolic parameters, physical activity, and hydration levels.”
www.psypost.org
The idea that a good night’s sleep is essential for health is not new, but the specific impacts of extending sleep duration, particularly among young adults, have been less clear. Previous research has established a link between short sleep duration and various health issues, including high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and lower physical activity levels. College students, with their unique schedules and lifestyle, often experience disrupted sleep patterns, making them an ideal demographic for studying the effects of sleep extension.
“There have been some studies showing that young adults with short sleep duration (<7 hours/night, the minimum recommended duration by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for optimal adult health and wellbeing) report feeling sleepy and have poor physical health, including higher systolic blood pressure and heart rate, higher hemoglobin A1C, and lower levels of physical activity,” explained study author Gina M. Mathew (@GinaMMathewPhD), a postdoctoral associate in public health at Stony Brook Medicine.
“There is a lack of research that examines whether attempting to lengthen sleep is feasible in college students, a population that’s at high risk for insufficient sleep, and whether such a sleep extension intervention would improve physical health. We therefore examined effects of a 1-week, 1-hour nightly sleep extension intervention in a sample of 12 college students on cardiac and metabolic parameters, physical activity, and hydration levels.”
An extra hour of sleep brings multiple health benefits for college students, study finds
Extending sleep by one hour nightly improved college students' heart health, glucose regulation, and hydration while reducing sleepiness. This small change also led to lower blood pressure.
www.psypost.org
