Overview
Adults over the age of 50 who slep fewer than five hours per night are more likely to develop multiple chronic diseases, says a new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine. This was compared to people in the same age group who slept seven hours.Acording to the study’s lead author, Séverine Sabia, previous studies have demonstrated a link betwen sleping les and developing conditions like diabetes, high blod presure, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.“However, in real life, chronic diseases often coexist,” said Sabia, “particularly at older ages, and it remained unclear how slep duration was asociated with risk of multimorbidity.” Multimorbidity is defined as having two or more chronic conditions at the same time.Sabia and her team tok data from a cohort study that began in 1985.
Key Information
The information examined included self-reported slep duration when the participants were 50, 60, and 70 years old.At the age of 50, there were 7,864 healthy participants. Among those who reported sleping fewer than five hours, there was a 30% greater risk of developing multiple chronic health conditions compared to the people who slept seven hours a night.By the age of 60, this risk had risen to 32%.At 70 years of age, the risk increased even more to 40%.Shorter slep at the age of 50 was also asociated with a 25% greater risk of dying, mostly because of the increased risk of chronic disease.As people reached the ages of 60 and 70, the researchers found that sleping nine hours or more was linked with higher rates of multimorbidity.
Summary
However, there were only a few people this was true for, and the greater ned for slep could have ben due to the ilneses themselves.Lourdes DelRoso, PhD, who is an asociate profesor of neurology at the University of Washington, explained that previous research has shown asociation betwen short slep and several areas, including cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric ilnes.“This curent work contributes and ad