HQ Team
October 28, 2022: Middle-aged and older people who sleep for five or fewer hours at night are at risk of several chronic ailments such as heart disease to cancer, results of a large study show.
A joint study by University College London in the United Kingdom and Université Paris Cité, France, found that individuals of 50 or more who slept 5 hours or less a night had a 30% higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases over time than those who slept at least 7 hours a night. The risk rose to nearly 40 per cent by the time participants reached 70 years.
Diseases for higher risk included diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, stroke, liver disease, depression, dementia, Parkinson’s and arthritis.
“It is important to take care of our sleep,” lead investigator Séverine Sabia said.
She said that people should address the reasons for paucity of sleep. Other things to take care to improve sleep duration include ” keeping a regular sleep schedule, a healthy lifestyle — physical activity and light exposure during the day, and a light dinner — and avoidance of screens for a half hour before sleep.”
Sleep patterns and disease risk
For the study, the researchers asked nearly 8000 civil servants in the UK as part of the Whitehall II cohort study to report their sleep beginning at age 50 every 4 to 5 years for the next 25 years. Study participants were free of chronic disease at age 50 and were mostly male (67.5%) and White (90%).
The investigators found that at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or less were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with multiple chronic diseases over time compared to people who slept 7 hours.
At age 60, those who slept 5 hours or less had a 32% greater risk of developing more than one chronic disease.
For participants who slept 9 or more hours per night, only those aged 60 were at increased risk of developing more than one chronic disease.
Sabia noted that previous studies have shown that those who slept less than 5 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, CVD, or dementia. “However, chronic diseases often coexist, particularly at older ages, and it remains unclear how sleep duration may be associated with risk of multimorbidity,” she said.
“Multimorbidity is on the rise in high-income countries and more than half of older adults now have at least two chronic diseases,” said Sabia.
“This is proving to be a major challenge for public health, as multimorbidity is associated with high healthcare service use, hospitalisations and disability,” Sabia added.
Sabia noted that previous studies have shown that those who slept less than 5 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, CVD, or dementia. “However, chronic diseases often coexist, particularly at older ages, and it remains unclear how sleep duration may be associated with risk of multimorbidity,” she said.
The study was published online in PLOS Medicine.
