Sleeping less than 5 hours increases risk of chronic diseases, study reveals

Underlining the relation between insufficient sleep and multimorbidity, a UK study has revealed that people who sleep for less than five hours at night in their mid-to-late lives are prone to at least two chronic diseases.

Research done at the University College London (UCL) in the UK found that people who slept for five hours or less at age 50 were 20 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease.

The research also pointed out that such people were 40 per cent more susceptible to more than two chronic diseases over the next 25 years when compared with those who slept for up to seven hours.

According to a study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, people who continued with the same sleep pattern consisting of less than five hours of sleep in their sixties and seventies were 30 per cent to 40 per cent more likely to multimorbidity or being diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases in comparison to those who took sufficient sleep at the same age.

"Multimorbidity is on the rise in high-income countries and more than half of older adults now have at least two chronic diseases," said study lead author, Severine 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 said.

Five hours of sleep in the 50s also increases the risk of mortality

It was found in the research that, five hours of sleep at the age of 50 also increased the risk of mortality over the follow-up period by 25 per cent. The finding is quite obvious because short sleep duration leads to an increased risk of chronic heart disease over the years. Increased risk of disease can ultimately increase the risk of death.

Severine Sabia recommends people of sleeping for seven to eight hours at night to avoid such risks. She also points out that sleeping structure changes with age. The researcher also mentioned that it was previously proved that sleeping more or less than 7-8 hours at night can cause individual chronic diseases.

During the research, the sleeping duration of participants was measured along with mortality and disease they are suffering from during 25 years.

The study examined the impact of sleep duration on more than 7,000 men and women at the ages of 50, 60, and 70, from the Whitehall II cohort study, which was done from 1985 to 1988. During the study, researchers examined the health of 10,308 civil servants of age between 35 and 55 years.

"Our findings show that short sleep duration is also associated with multimorbidity. To ensure a better night's sleep, it is important to promote good sleep hygiene, such as making sure the bedroom is quiet, dark and at a comfortable temperature before sleeping.

She also advised people to abstain from the use of electronic devices and take large meals before bedtime. Staying physically active and avoiding exposure to light during the day will also help in good sleep.

Longer sleep is riskier for people already diagnosed with a chronic condition

In addition to the short duration of sleep, researchers also tried to find out the relation between long sleep hours and health outcomes. There was no stark observation related to long sleep hours at age 50 and multimorbidity in healthy people. But the researchers found that long sleep duration for people already suffering from a chronic condition brought around 35 per cent increased risk of developing another illness.

Researchers justify this finding by mentioning the underlying health conditions impacting sleep as the reason.

As the data collected in the research was self-reported by the participants, there are chances of reporting bias. However, the research findings were also validated through electronic measurements of the sleep of 4,000 participants.

Another research observation was that it was only participated by the members of civil service who were already employed when recruited for the study and were also likely to be healthier than other people.

(With inputs from PTI)