LONDON (AFP) - – People who get less than six hours sleep per
night have an increased risk of dying prematurely, researchers said
on Wednesday.
Those who slumbered for less than that amount of time were 12
percent more likely to die early, though researchers also found a
link between sleeping more than nine hours and premature death.
"If you sleep little, you can develop diabetes, obesity,
hypertension and high cholesterol," Francesco Cappuccio, who led
research on the subject at Britain's University of Warwick, told
AFP.
The study, conducted with the Federico II University in Naples,
Italy, aggregated decade-long studies from around the world
involving more than 1.3 million people and found "unequivocal
evidence of the direct link" between lack of sleep and premature
death.
"We think that the relation between little sleep and illness is
due to a series of hormonal and metabolical mechanisms," Cappuccio
said.
The findings of the study were published in the Sleep
journal.
Cappuccio believes the duration of sleep is a public health
issue and should be considered as a behavioural risk factor by
doctors.
"Society pushes us to sleep less and less," Cappuccio said,
adding that about 20 percent of the population in the United States
and Britain sleeps less than five hours.
Sleeping less than six hours is "more common amongst full-time
workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for
longer working hours and more shift work"
The study also found a link between sleeping more than nine
hours per night and premature death, but Cappuccio said
oversleeping is more likely to be an effect of illness, rather than
a cause.
"Doctors never ask how much one sleeps, but that could be an
indicator that something is wrong," said Cappuccio, who heads the
Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of
Warwick.
Research showed no adverse effects for those sleeping between
six and eight hours per day.
Source:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100505/tts-health-science-sleep-britain-italy-cac1e9b.html