Researchers at University College London have determined in their new study that sleeping less than five hours a day in mid-to-late life may be linked to a higher risk of developing chronic diseases.
The findings were released in PLOS Medicine.
For the study, sleep duration of more than 7,000 men and women from the Whitehall II cohort was analyzed.
“We examined whether sleep duration is associated with incidence of a first chronic disease, subsequent multimorbidity and mortality using data spanning 25 years,” according to the study’s authors.
“In this study, we observed short sleep duration to be associated with risk of chronic disease and subsequent multimorbidity but not with progression to death. There was no robust evidence of an increased risk of chronic disease among those with long sleep duration at age 50.”
“Our findings suggest an association between short sleep duration and multimorbidity.”
