Illness in Elderly Linked to Lack of Sleep
(TargetLiberty.org) – Researchers in the UK studied the sleep patterns of nearly 8,000 civil service workers over an average of 25 years. They were trying to figure out if sleep duration is associated with the development of chronic diseases.
On October 18, the medical journal PLOS Medicine published a peer-reviewed study by Université Paris Cité and University College London showing seniors are at risk of developing diseases depending on how long they sleep. According to the research, people who are over the age of 50 and getting less than five hours of sleep per night are at risk of developing illnesses that could cut their lives short.
At age 50, people who slept five hours or less had a 30% increase in developing multiple illnesses, including diabetes, cancer, liver disease, dementia, arthritis, and heart disease.
Using data from the Whitehall II cohort study, Severine Sabia and team investigate whether sleep duration is associated with subsequent risk of developing multimorbidity among adults age 50, 60, and 70 years old in England. https://t.co/upPLnOVFs8 @epiAgeing @Whitehall2study pic.twitter.com/nTRLeQyW9j
— PLOS Medicine (@PLOSMedicine) October 18, 2022
People who were 60 years old and didn’t sleep well were at a 32% higher risk of developing an illness. For 70 or older, their risk increased to 40%.
Adam Krause, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, told Newsmax the findings weren’t “too surprising.” He explained, “Sleep processes touch every system of the body,” so not getting enough can certainly make a person more susceptible to illnesses.
How many hours do you sleep per night?
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