Women Who Sleep More Could Be At A Higher Risk Of Stroke

The human body requires at an average seven to eight hours of sleep in a day. A recent study has revealed that sleeping more than the required time could put the women to an increased risk of stroke.

A group of researchers investigated the sleeping duration of women. It reported that the women who did not have previous history of stroke also reported to have one later.

In this case the sleep duration of the women were reported, the women who slept for longer hours reported the symptoms of stroke whereas the women who slept for the prescribed duration did not report any such incidences.

Why Do We Sleep?

We all crave for a good sleep to relax our body and mind. Some say we sleep for an increase in the brain activity, while others consider it a good activity to rejuvenate the mind by relieving stress. But till date science has not been able to discover the reason why we sleep and it still largely looms as a mystery.

The theories on sleep reveal that we sleep for the maintenance of the brain- activity and consolidating our memory. Unlike animals where it is believed that sleep makes them vulnerable to predators, in case of humans it reduces the brain metabolism and the physical activity done by the body. Since the human brain when active, consumes atleast 20 percent of the body's energy but when asleep it conserves that energy.

When asleep it also reduces the risk of an injury and in humans it reduces the resource consumption. Our sleep pattern changes when we grow old as our metabolic rate declines and sleep is reduced as we are more alert even during sleep.