Notable relationship between sleep duration and depth and the risk of developing dozens of diseases - Sarmad

A new study shows that sleeping between six and eight hours is associated with a reduced risk of numerous diseases, while sleeping fewer than five hours is linked to an increased risk.

The study, published in PLOS Medicine, was conducted by Shengqi Sun of Capital Medical University in China and colleagues, using data from 95,559 participants in the UK Biobank.

The researchers followed the participants for an average of 8.9 years. Participants wore wrist-worn devices for seven consecutive days and nights to measure sleep duration and stages, including deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, as well as sleep regularity and nighttime wakefulness.

The researchers found that longer REM sleep duration was associated with a lower risk of 83 diseases, including heart failure, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Increased deep sleep duration was also linked to a reduced risk of seven health conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depressive disorder.

Conversely, irregular sleep patterns and increased nighttime wakefulness were associated with a higher risk of several conditions, including anxiety disorders and alcohol and drug use disorders.

The results also showed that individuals sleeping fewer than five hours were at greater risk for 37 diseases, while a sleep duration of six to eight hours was associated with the lowest risk levels for a large number of diseases.

The researchers noted that the study does not prove that sleep patterns directly cause or prevent diseases, as it relied on observing associations between sleep and health status rather than conducting a clinical trial.

The researchers stated that the findings provide additional evidence for the importance of adequate and regular sleep, and highlight the potential role of different sleep stages in maintaining health.