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Lack of sleep may be deadly
26/09/2007 06:58 - (SA)
London - People who do not get
enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart
disease, according to a large British study released on Monday.
Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of
sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which
is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.
A 17-year analysis of 10 000 government workers showed those
who cut their sleep from seven hours a night to five or less
faced a 1.7-fold increased risk of death from all causes and
more than double the risk of cardiovascular death.
The findings highlight a danger in busy modern lifestyles,
Francesco Cappuccio, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the
University of Warwick's medical school, told the annual
conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge.
"A third of the population of the UK and over 40% in
the US regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so it is
not a trivial problem," he said.
"The current pressures in society to cut out sleep, in order
to squeeze in more, may not be a good idea - particularly if
you go below five hours."
Previous research has highlighted the potential health risks
of shift work and disrupted sleep. But the study by Cappuccio
and colleagues, which was supported by British government and
US funding, is the first to link duration of sleep and
mortality rates.
The study looked at sleep patterns of participants aged
35-55 at two points in their lives - 1985-88 and 1992-93 - and
then tracked their mortality rates until 2004.
The results were adjusted to take account of other possible
risk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol
consumption, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol.
The correlation with cardiovascular risk in those who slept
less in the 1990s than in the 1980s was clear but, curiously,
there was also a higher mortality rate in people who increased
their sleep to more than nine hours.
In this case, however, there was no cardiovascular link and
Cappuccio said it was possible that longer sleeping could be
related to other health problems such as depression or
cancer-related fatigue.
"In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that
consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal
for health," he said.
- Reuters
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