Sleeping for a few or excessive hours in a day both lead to serious health risks.

Heart and lung specialists at American Thoracic Society published new guidelines on the amount of sleep required for different age groups to maintain optimal health, CBS reports.

Experts advise regular adults to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep to attain its health benefits.

Sleep conserves and restores the energy of a person to prepare him or her for another day of body work. Sleeping is the body's opportunity to repair and rejuvenate itself. 

For millions of Americans, however, sleep deprivation is common especially to those who are extremely busy with school or work.

"You're subject to certain metabolic problems, such as pre-diabetes; you have more likelihood to have cardiovascular problems and hypertension," said University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Dr. Kingman Strohl on his interview with CBS News.

Not getting enough sleep also causes drowsy drivers to be involved in car accidents that lead to serious injuries and even deaths.

For insomniacs, who don't intentionally deprive themselves of sleeping, experts recommend patients to undergo sleeping therapies, which are more effective in the long run instead of taking prescribed sleeping pills.

"When the drug stops, the insomnia pops up again. But when cognitive behavioral therapy is instituted, there's longer lasting sleep satisfaction," Strohl added.

As for the younger group, the guidelines advise children to get longer sleep. "For children, we suggest that age-based recommendations for sleep duration be developed. These should enable the child to awaken spontaneously at the desired time through implementation of regular wake and sleep schedules."

The group also added that although getting long hours of sleep is beneficial, going overboard to more than 9 to 10 hours have some dangerous health effects.

CBS also reported that diabetes, obesity, headaches, back pains, heart disease, and depression are among the negative effects to those who oversleep.