Washington, May 21: A major study claims it has found unequivocal proof that sleeping consistently for less than 6 hours a night may cause premature death, the Guardian reported.
The study was published by the University of Warwick and the Federico II University medical school in Naples in the scientific journal Sleep claiming that it has unequivocal evidence that abnormal sleep patterns such as too much sleep suffer from potential harm while two little sleep decreases life expectancy by 12 percent.
The study covered 1.3 million people, looking into causes of 100,000 deaths over 25 years in Asia, Europe and the United States.
“Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill health,” said research leader Professor Francesco Cappuccio for the Sleep, Health and Society Program at the University of Warwick.
“Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers…. Consistently sleeping six to eight hours per night may be optimal for health.”
The study claims that other researches in this field had already established the relationship between health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes and lack of sleep.
——-Agencies