If you needed any more proof you need more sleep, consider a long-term study out of the UK that was just published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
Researchers who tracked nearly 8,000 Brits over 25 years say those who were 50 and older who reported getting five hours of sleep or less are at greater risk of developing multiple chronic diseases than their better-sleeping counterparts.
The findings were the result of data culled for 25 years on thousands of British civil servants, whose health was clocked at various times in their lives.
Those who were aged 50 were found to have a 30% higher risk of health problems from obesity to heart and kidney disease — “multimorbidities” — and the older they got, the higher the risk. At 60, it jumped to 32% percent for those sleep-deprived folks; at 70, the risk was 40%.
The same risks for health problems that were observed were not found in those so-called long-sleepers — who managed 9 hours of shut-eye every night — but interestingly, the scientists admitted they just couldn’t find enough test subjects who actually did so to adequately compare.
Making things worse for the average sleep-deprived person is the fact that the study group were civil servants, with many being more active than your average Joe.
The researchers tackled the study because, “multimorbidity is on the rise as reflected in over half of older adults having at least 2 chronic diseases in high-income countries, making multimorbidity a major challenge for public health.”
The study tracks with the recommendations of 7-9 hours of sleep a night for better health, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.