Can sleeping too much increase the risk of stroke?

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. There are many different causes of stroke from lifestyle, smoking to pre-existing medical conditions. However, new research has found that sleeping too much significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases including stroke.
According to these findings, frequent sleep deprivation and more than 7 hours of sleep per night are both associated with a higher risk of stroke. A study appearing in the journal Neurology has found a link between daytime napping or sleeping too much and stroke risk. The team collected information from 31750 people, none of whom had a history of stroke or any other serious health condition at the start of the study. Participants answered questions about their sleep habits, and the researchers clinically followed the group for 6 years.
The research team found that 8% of the participants had a habit of taking naps lasting more than 90 minutes and 24% reported getting at least 9 hours of sleep per night. During the study period, there were 1557 strokes among the participants. People who slept 9 or more hours a night had a 23% higher risk of having a stroke than those who regularly slept only 7-8 hours. Thus, it was concluded that people who slept longer than 9 hours and took a nap for more than 90 minutes a day had an 85% higher risk of stroke than those who slept moderately during the night and midday.
Quality of sleep seems to play an important role. People who reported poor sleep quality were 29% more likely to have a stroke than those with good sleep quality. These results continue to have implications for the harmful effects of too much sleep after adjusting for underlying factors such as hypertension, smoking, diabetes, etc. These results highlight the importance of napping, moderate duration, and good quality sleep, especially among middle-aged and older adults.

The researchers acknowledge some limitations in the study and that more time is needed. First, because the study was made observational, it cannot prove causality. Second, the study did not take into account other causes such as sleep apnea or other sleep disorders that could have influenced the results. Third, self-reported data are not as reliable as those recorded by researchers observing participants' sleep. Ultimately, the results are applicable only to healthy older adults in one region, but not to other populations.
Therefore, more research is needed to understand how long naps and longer hours of sleep at night may be associated with an increased risk of stroke. Additionally, long naps and naps may indicate an overall inactive lifestyle, which is also linked to an increased risk of stroke.
In short, sleep plays an important role in human health. Some studies have shown that getting too much or not enough sleep limits brain activity and increases the risk of stroke. Therefore, to prevent the risk of stroke, in addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you need to change your sleep time accordingly.