No one can ignore the significance of a good night’s sleep when it comes to good health. A new study published in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology specifically talks about the duration of sleep and how an irregular sleeping cycle increases the chances of asthma in adults.
This journal is linked with the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) and publishes authentic scientific information. This new study tells that both, too much sleep or too little sleep are risk factors for people having asthma, as it may worsen their condition.
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Faith Luyster is the principal investigator and lead author of this study. Luyster says that all previous researches on understanding the sleep cycle tell that having a poor sleep quality worsens asthma in adults. But this new study tells that duration of sleep, either too less or too much also affects it. In comparison with the normal sleep cycle, the short duration and extra-long duration are more prone to asthma attacks which means sleep is a big factor for their health.
The study also tells that people who reported asthma attacks within the last year were also experiencing short sleeping hours (45%) and extremely long hours of sleep (51%). Also, they spent more days affected with disturbed health status, which includes both mental and physical health as compared to other, healthy individuals.
The study investigated 1,389 adults of at least 20 years of age through the survey. All of these participants self-reported for having a history of asthma. Among these participants, 25.9% slept for 5 hours or less than that. 65.9% of them slept between 6-8 hours and only 8.2% of them slept 9 hours or more than that.
The information on these sleeping hours was obtained by questions that was; “How much sleep do you usually get at night on weekdays or workdays?”
Interestingly, the short duration sleepers were young and mostly non-white. While those who slept for longer periods were older in age, mostly women and smoking habits.
Those who sleep for short time reported more incidences of asthma, dry cough, allergies, and even hospitalization for a night at least within last year. And not just this, they also experienced worsened health quality such as days with poor physical and mental health.
The dangers of sleeping longer than normal hinders the person to perform daily tasks. It adds limitations to the quality of his performance, focusing on work, and concentration however no as such odd factors were observed in between the healthy and long duration sleepers.
Dr. Gailen D. Marshall is a certified allergist and member of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) as well as the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
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He says that a disturbance in sleeping hours for an asthma patient is no less than a red flag. It also indicates that he is more prone to health complications just because his sleeping hours are either too much or too less.
He further adds that; “This study adds solid evidence to the practice of asthma patients discussing sleep issues with their allergist to help determine if they need to change their asthma plan to achieve adequate sleep as a component of overall good asthma management. It also warns that consequences can be expected when sleep patterns are chronically inadequate.”
Normally, all allergy specialists are trained to correctly diagnose asthma and design a suitable treatment for the patient. But for reducing the risk, a person who thinks he might have asthma should pay attention to his sleeping duration and set it to a standard, healthy level.
