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Lack of sleep may be deadly, research shows

By Ben HirschlerMon Sep 24, 9:39 AM ET

People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of

heart disease, according to a large British study released on Monday.

Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said 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 who cut their

sleeping from seven hours a night to five or less faced a 1.7-fold increased

risk in mortality from all causes and more than double the risk of

cardiovascular death.

The findings highlight a danger in busy modern lifestyles, Francesco Cappuccio,

professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Warwick's medical

school, told the annual conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge.

"A third of the population of the UK and over 40 percent in the U.S. regularly

sleep less than five hours a night, so it is not a trivial problem," he said in

a telephone interview.

"The current pressures in society to cut out sleep, in order to squeeze in

more, may not be a good idea -- particularly if you go below five hours."

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 U.S. funding, is the first to link duration of sleep

and mortality rates.

The study looked at sleep patterns of participants aged 35-55 years at two

points in their lives -- 1985-88 and 1992-93 -- and then tracked their

mortality rates until 2004.

The results were adjusted to take account of other possible risk factors such

as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol consumption, body mass index, blood

pressure and cholesterol.

The correlation with cardiovascular risk in those who slept less in the 1990s

than in the 1980s was clear but, curiously, there was also a higher mortality

rate in people who increased their sleeping to more than nine hours.

In this case, however, there was no cardiovascular link and Cappuccio said it

was possible that longer sleeping could be related to other health problems

such as depression or cancer-related fatigue.

"In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that consistently sleeping

around seven hours per night is optimal for health," he said.