Getting little sleep is a drama in itself, here and now. And chronic insomniacs know this all too well: that is to say 13% of Italians. Now, a study on Plos Onesays that those over 50 who sleep five hours or less a night also run a 30 to 45 percent greater risk of getting more chronic diseases than peers who sleep seven hours.
Sleep and multimorbidity
A short duration of sleep has already been associated for some time with various chronic diseases, for example cardiovascular diseases. But little is known about the relationship between multimorbidity, the simultaneous presence in a single patient of two or more chronic or long-lasting diseases, and the number of hours slept. Severine Sabiaand his fellow researchers at Université Paris Cité, Inserm and University College London and the University of Helsinki, collected data from a British cohort study started in 1985 and looked at self-reported sleep duration. at the age of 50, 60 and 70 years of 7864 men and women, and their health conditions over the next 25 years.
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The result? Those who slept five hours or less a night at the age of 50 had a 30% higher risk of multimorbidity than those who slept 7 hours. An increase that rose to 32% in people who slept five hours or less at 60 years old, and 40% of those who slept five hours or less at 70.
Not only this: in the study, those who slept little at the age of 50 also had a 25% increased risk of dying before those who slept, let’s say the right thing. “Our work, based on data from over 7,000 men and women followed for 25 years, indicates that a short duration of sleep from middle age to old age is associated with the risk of chronic disease and subsequent multimorbidity,” Sabià said. . Now this is true of short-term sleep. But how did things go for the long sleepers, shall we say?
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Nine hours of sleep and reverse causation
In fact, the study sample also included people who slept 9 hours or more than 9. A condition (luck?) That in the 60s and 70s was also associated with an increased risk of multiple chronicity. the study participants who slept so much were 122, too small a number to be able to generalize the data. In studies like this there is in fact the possibility that the phenomenon of reverse causality will occur, that is, in this case, that it is possible undiagnosed diseases that affect sleep, and not vice versa. importance of sleep duration for good health in old age.
Who is the insomniac?
Insomniacs are those who have an insufficient duration or a reduced continuity of sleep that do not allow them to feel rested in the morning: that is to say that in the concept of insomnia not only duration and continuity but also the subjective feeling of poor refreshment after night sleep must be considered. and if its social and working functionality during the day is compromised. According to the Italian Association for Research and Education in Sleep Medicine, insomniacs are mainly women and the elderly (60% of the total).
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The numbers
Insomnia represents 90% of sleep disorders, in the chronic form it suffers from 10 to 13% of the Italian population and up to 60% in the acute and transient forms (lasting weeks) which, for example, follow a traumatic event : a bereavement, a quarrel, the end of a relationship.
The quality of sleep: sleeping in fits and starts
According to data from the World Association of Sleep Medicine (Wasm), which has been organizing World Sleep Day since 2008, it only takes one night of sleep in fits and starts (sleep interrupted by awakening) to decrease attention, memory and learning skills the next day. And nearly half (46%) of those with disturbed sleep make mistakes at work. The problem is being able to sleep …
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