You need at least five hours’ sleep a night to avoid developing health problems when you are over 50, according to a new study.
The report, published on open source journal PLOS Medicine, studied the health and sleeping habits of 8,000 civil servants living in London. Self-reported sleep duration was measured six times between 1985 and 2016, and data on sleep duration was extracted at age 50. Sleep duration was self-reported, but some also wore a wrist sleep tracker.
Participants were checked for chronic conditions, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease, over two decades of follow-up.
The report by researchers at University College London and Paris Cité University aimed to investigate why approximately one third of human life is devoted to sleep, emphasising its vital role in several physiological functions essential for health. There is consistent evidence of an association of sleep duration with chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, and with mortality, although the nature of the association is unclear.
Multiple chronic conditions often coexist within the same individual, a condition known as ‘multimorbidity’ – but the association of sleep duration with multimorbidity remains poorly understood due to the lack of research and crossovers between studies.
See also: Good News: COVID is Down. Bad News: Tuberculosis is Back
Duration
The researchers wanted to know whether sleep duration could affect the journey from a healthy state, to one or more chronic diseases, and subsequent mortality. Current guidelines recommend 7 to 8 hours of sleep for older adults, but it has also been suggested that both short and long sleep duration carry risk for multimorbidity.
The report concluded that those who slept five hours or less around the age of 50 had a 30% greater risk of multiple ailments than those who slept seven hours. Shorter sleep at 50 was also associated with a higher risk of death during the study period, mainly linked to the increased risk of chronic disease.
Short sleep duration was consistently associated with increased risk of multimorbidity, with the onset of a first disease and with subsequent multimorbidity, but not with the outcome of the disease in terms of mortality. Results for long sleep duration were less robust, as associations with multimorbidity were observed when sleep was measured at age 60 and 70 but not at 50 years.
Long sleep at age 50 was found not to be associated with disease progression.
The report comes to some interesting conclusions about the importance of good sleep with the ageing population and increases in life expectancy. Living with multiple chronic conditions is common among older adults in high-income countries. but of course this multimorbidity presents a challenge as it is associated with high health care service use, hospitalisations, and disability. With health care systems organised around the treatment and care of individual diseases rather than multimorbidity, the report suggests that prevention of a first chronic disease, and secondary prevention to reduce risk of multimorbidity, are vital to address the cost burden of multimorbidity.
The report concludes: “The present findings along with evidence from previous studies show the importance of sleep duration across the lifecourse for health outcomes at older ages. Further research using objective measures of sleep duration would allow better understanding of the importance of sleep duration for chronic disease and multimorbidity”.
Insomnia
The NHS says you have insomnia if you regularly:
- Find it hard to go to sleep
- Wake up several times during the night
- Lie awake at night
- Wake up early and cannot go back to sleep
- Still feel tired after waking up
- Find it hard to nap during the day even though you’re tired
- Feel tired and irritable during the day
- Find it difficult to concentrate during the day because you’re tired
If you have insomnia for a short time (less than 3 months) it’s called short-term insomnia. Insomnia that lasts 3 months or longer is called long-term insomnia.
You can find an NHS test to determine whether you suffer from insomnia here.
According to the NHS, the most common causes of insomnia are:
- Stress, anxiety or depression
- Noise
- A room that’s too hot or cold
- Uncomfortable beds
- Alcohol, caffeine or nicotine
- Recreational drugs like cocaine or ecstasy
- Jet-lag
- Shift work
Recommended self-treatments include:
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
- Relax at least 1 hour before bed, for example, take a bath or read a book
- Make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet – use curtains, blinds, an eye mask or ear plugs if needed
- Exercise regularly during the day
- Make sure your mattress, pillows and covers are comfortable
and habits to avoid include:
- Do not smoke or drink alcohol, tea or coffee at least 6 hours before going to bed
- Do not eat a big meal late at night
- Do not exercise at least 4 hours before bed
- Do not watch television or use devices, like smartphones, right before going to bed, because the bright light makes you more awake
- Do not nap during the day
- Do not drive when you feel sleepy
- Do not sleep in after a bad night’s sleep – stick to your regular sleeping hours
See also: The Importance of Vitamin D in the Human Body
