It’s no secret that sleep plays an essential role in our health.
According to a new study, short nights’ sleep may even encourage the development of chronic diseases in people aged 50 and over. Here’s how it works.
Too short nights increase the risk of chronic diseases
Short nights can accelerate the onset of chronic diseases as early as age 50.
This is the finding of researchers from Inserm and Université Paris Cité, in collaboration with University College London (England), in a new study published in the scientific journal Plos One.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed data from 7,864 British men and women. The participants, aged 50, 60 and 70, were asked to self-assess their sleep duration between the years 1985 and 2019.
Finally, 4,000 participants wore a connected watch (or accelerometer) for one week.
» This provided a precise measure of sleep duration and enabled us to check the accuracy of the estimates, » explain the researchers.
Be careful if you sleep less than 5 hours!
According to the results, sleeping less than 5 hours increases the risk of developing chronic diseases after the age of 50 .
The researchers explain that » there is a robust association between short sleep duration (less than or equal to 5 hours) at ages 50, 60 and 70 and a higher risk of multimorbidity of the order of 30 to 40% depending on age » .
Furthermore, the scientists found that short sleep duration at age 50 was associated with a 20% increased risk of developing a first chronic disease, and a similar increased risk of multimorbidity among those who had already developed a first chronic disease.