Longer sleep tied to worse cholesterol in seniors

"Older people who spend more time sleeping have higher cholesterol levels, and less "good" HDL cholesterol, Dutch researchers report. People who sleep fewer than seven hours a night, as well as those who log more than eight hours may be more likely to develop heart disease, although it's not clear why, Dr. Julia F. van den Berg of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues note in the medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine. To investigate whether cholesterol might be a factor, van den Berg and her team compared sleep duration and total cholesterol levels, as well as the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol, in 768 men and women 57 to 97 years old." - Reuters