
A CNN article reports on the research results looking at health risks associated with sleeping less than 5 hours a night. The article says, “The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, took a closer look at a group of nearly 8,000 civil servants in the United Kingdom who had no chronic disease at age 50. Scientists asked the participants to report on how much sleep they got during clinic examinations every four to five years for the next 25 years. For those whose sleep was tracked at age 50, people who slept five hours or less a night faced a 30% higher risk that they would develop multiple chronic diseases over time than those who slept at least seven hours a night. At 60, it was a 32% increased risk, and at 70, it was a 40% greater risk.”
When they referred to chronic diseases, they were talking about diabetes, arthritis, Parkinson’s, coronary heart disease, heart failure and more.
Adam Knowlden, an associate professor of health science at the University of Alabama, explains, “Often, people see the need to sleep as an inconvenience. They think to get the most out of life, they need to deprive themselves of sleep to get ahead or to be more social, but it’s really the other way around. Most of the research shows your quality of life actually improves if you get sufficient sleep.”
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