Researchers from the United States (US) have raised the alarm over risks posed to middle-aged adults with high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke, saying they faced high risk of early death or cancer when sleeping less than six hours per day. These are the findings of a new study, published in the ‘Journal of the American Heart Association’.
The alert showing that lack of sleep could double – or even triple – risk of dying from heart disease or cancer was taken from U.S. research that analysed the sleep of around 1,600 adults and found that sleep was critical to the body’s rejuvenation.
Deep sleep, the kind that comes only after a full cycle, was necessary for the body to release hormones designed to repair cells and build tissue in the body and brain, reported ‘CambridgeshireLive,’ an online news website. Lead study author Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, said: “Our study suggests that achieving normal sleep may be protective for some people with these health conditions and risks.”
However, further research is needed to examine whether improving and increasing sleep through medical or behavioural therapies could reduce risk of early death, he said. Furthermore, Fernandez- Mendoza while calling for policy changes to ensure that sleep consultations and sleep studies would become a more integral part of healthcare systems, added: ‘Short sleep duration should be included as a useful risk factor to predict the longterm outcomes of people with these health conditions and as a target of primary and specialised clinical practices.
According to the researchers, participants in the study had their sleep monitored during a single night in a sleep laboratory during the 1990s, while the team kept track of the group up to 2017 and found that in general, those who slept less than six hours were more likely to have died.
