Lack of sleep increases stroke risk

Be very wary of headlines like this. They draw the line at 6 hours, but that includes everyone, even people that only get 3 hours. What we want is the raw curves. If you get exactly 5 hours and 55 minutes a night, you might only be 1.5 times as likely as someone who gets 9 hours a night, while the people getting 4 hours a night are 15 times more likely.

If one sleeps less than 6 hours a night, maybe there's other reasons for that, that lead to stroke, like anxiety over being deep in debt. So reducing such risk of stroke may not be as simple as getting more sleep.<p>Reminds me of the study that concluded that people living together (vs. married) leads to ~30% greater chance of alcholism. Maybe alcoholics just aren't as likely to get married?<p>Surely there's a Wiki on this type of logical fallacy somewhere. Anyone know what it's called?

I think the actual correlation here is:<p>Sleeping very little -indicates-&#62; Stress and Anxiety -builds to-&#62; Hypertension -leads to-&#62; Stroke<p>Major disturbances in sleeping habits - Insomnia or Excessive Sleeping - are themselves strongly indicative of Depression, another major marker in terms of the Anxiety-&#62;Hypertension-&#62;Stroke vector.<p>So, to conclude: Yes, sleeping very little is probably correlated with health problems, but mostly because it indicates something else being very wrong.

I wish they gave more information.<p>Is the effect reversible? How long does it take for a persons stroke risk to go back to normal if they start sleeping more? What if I get 5 hours of sleep five nights a week, but 10 hours each of the other two nights?

More reason why to sleep more<p><a href="http://www.aginnt.com/post/23693419818/how-to-be-a-great-entrepreneur-sleep-breaks-and-a#.T9judyu-RrU" rel="nofollow">http://www.aginnt.com/post/23693419818/how-to-be-a-great-ent...</a>

A more balanced take on the study: <a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/APSS/33225" rel="nofollow">http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/APSS/33225</a>

I guess all parents of small children are doomed? sensational headline is sensational.

There doesnt seem to be any links to the study itself...

Eat a terrible diet, get little exercise, live a sedentary lifestyle, approx. 997 times more likely to have a stroke.