A new study suggests sleeping a lot can increase the risk of a stroke.

Older adults that report they sleep more than eight hours a day had a 46 percent greater chance of suffering from a stroke in the next 10 years compared to those who only slept six to eight hours each night.

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British researchers claim they've discovered a link between longer sleeping hours and stroke. They have yet to determine if it's a cause or consequence or even an early warning for declining brain health, however.

There are prior studies that suggested the possible link between sleep and risk of stroke, according to lead researcher Yue Leng of the University of Cambridge. Results from those studies, however, were apparently inconsistent and made researchers from Cambridge and the University of Warwick look into new data from a study that originally studied cancer.

That particular study organized by the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer monitored 9,692 people in England between the ages of 40 to 79 for almost a decade. Data gathered were about their sleeping habits and the number of hours of sleep they clocked every night on average.

Among the 9,692 participants, 346 suffered from a stroke during the study period. Those stroke incidents apparently didn't occur in the same age group.

Findings from the research reveal that long sleepers, or those who had more than eight hours of sleep per night, had a significant higher risk than those average sleepers who only get six to eight hours.

An even more surprising finding is that those people who change their sleeping habits frequently from sleeping less than six hours a night to an excess of more than eight hours had a risk of stroke up to four times more than those who had average sleep hours that were consistent.

According to Alberto Ramos a neurology professor from the University of  Miami Miller School of Medicine, long hours of sleep is a warning but changing sleep patterns is more dangerous.

Adults over the age of 60 that sleep more should consider cardiovascular risk factors including cholesterol and blood pressure.

Leng says further research is needed and these findings should not be a reason to cut sleep hours to prevent stroke since sufficient sleep is pivotal to good health and overall wellness.

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