People who sleep more than eight hours a night may have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new study published in the February 25, 2015, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study found that people who slept more than eight hours a night, called long sleepers, were 46 percent more likely to have a stroke than people who slept six to eight hours a night, which was considered an average amount of sleep.

People who shifted over time from sleeping less than six hours a night to sleeping more than eight hours a night were nearly four times as likely to have a stroke as people who consistently slept an average amount.