Too much or too little sleep is bad for your health

The concept of the golden mean has a long history in philosophy and is even crudely recreated in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It applies to sleep as well. Too little sleep or too much sleep are both associated with poorer health than just the right amount of sleep, which turns out to be about 7-9 hours. Although people have had a good idea about this for a long time, a new nationwide study in the US has provided the strongest evidence to date of the negative affects of not getting the right amount of sleep each night. One of the co-authors of that study is an SDSU colleague of mine--Dr. Enrico Marcelli--and you can see his television interview discussing the research by clicking here (look for the article "Too Much Sleep").