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Hi, I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV... making news this week ... the benefits of getting just the right amount of sleep É how a good social network may help extend your life É and keeping kids safe this summer.
Some sleep experts recommend that adults aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night, and new research finds possible benefits from this advice. Researchers looked at the sleep habits of more than 56,000 adults who participated in a health-related study. People who got more or less than the recommended amount of shut-eye had a higher risk of several health issues including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Moving on: Having plenty of friends could be a real lifesaver. Researchers recently compiled 148 studies that looked for a possible connection between people's social relationships and their risk of death. Put together, all these studies showed that people with stronger social relationships had a 50-percent higher likelihood of survival. According to the researchers, it may be time for us to add social relationships to the list of other important factors that affect our health, like diet and exercise.
