Too little sleep? Stroke risk spikes in healthy adults

Attention, busy middle-aged folks. You may be healthy and thin, but if you habitually sleep less than six hours a night, you still could be boosting your risk of a stroke.
That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study being presented Monday at SLEEP 2012, the annual meeting of the nation’s sleep experts.
Getting too little shut-eye appeared to more than quadruple the risk of stroke symptoms among healthy, normal-weight people aged 45 and older, according to a study of some 5,600 people followed for up to three years.The really important take-home message is this: Don’t blow it off. Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise.Experts recommend that healthy adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night.