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People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely todie of heart disease, Although the reasons are unclear, researcherssaid 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 whocut their sleep from seven hours a night to five or less faced a1.7-fold increased risk of death from all causes and more than doublethe risk of cardiovascular death. "A third of the population of the UK and over 40percent in the US regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so itis not a trivial problem," 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 theirmortality rates until 2004. The results were adjusted to take account of other possiblerisk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol consumption,body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol. Cappuccio said it was possible that longer sleeping could be relatedto other health problems such as depression or cancer-related fatigue. "In terms of prevention, our findings indicate thatconsistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal forhealth," he said.
2010-03-22
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