To the Editor: We commend Mesas and colleagues for their
excellent article, ‘‘Sleep Duration and Mortality According
to Health Status in Older Adults.’’1 Although the sleep field
and the popular literature has focused a great amount of
attention on the risks of short sleep, Mesas and colleagues’
study is consistent with many other epidemiological studies
that indicate that mortality and morbidity risks are even
greater for long sleep.2–4 Moreover, as observed before,2
Mesas and colleagues found a greater prevalence of long
than short sleep; the average respondent reported a sleep
duration of 8 hour, which was associated with significant
mortality, suggesting greater public health relevance of long
than short sleep. Other strengths of the report are inclusion
of a representative sample, consideration of combined nocturnal
sleeping and daytime napping, and an extensive
in-home interview with participants, which allowed moredefinitive
assessment of reported sleep duration and other
factors (e.g., current medication use) than is typical in
similar studies.