Important News

In our REGARDS volunteers, we found that stroke risk is different for black and white men depending on how long they sleep. New data from REGARDS found that black men who slept less than six hours per night, were less likely to develop a stroke compared to black men who slept 7-9 hours. On the flip side, white men who slept nine or more hours a night were more likely to have a stroke than white men who slept 7-9 hours. There wasn’t a relationship of sleep length to stroke in black or white women. These results suggest that short sleep may be “good” for stroke for black men, and long sleep may be “bad” for stroke for white men. So, sleep length may have different consequences for you depending on your race and sex. More research is needed to understand why this might be. In the meantime, no matter how little or how much you sleep, keep a watch on stroke risk factors like your high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.