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Insomniac men run fourfold higher death risk--study
by Jamie Anderson - September 2, 2010 - comments
Men who suffer from chronic insomnia are four times more likely to die early.
Men who suffer from sleep deprivation are at a higher risk of dying ahead of time, vis-à-vis those who enjoy a good night's sleep on a regular basis, findings of a new study suggest.
For the purpose of the study, researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine, Pennsylvania, followed 1,000 women and 741 late middle-aged men.
Of these, four percent of the men and eight percent of the women had chronic insomnia, defined as getting less than six hours of sleep each night.
All the participants had their sleep monitored in a laboratory. Sleep duration was measured objectively by polysomnography.
"We believe that cumulatively these findings will increase the awareness among physicians and scientists that insomnia should be diagnosed early and treated appropriately." -- Dr Alexandros Vgontzas, lead author of the study
The study, which spanned a 14-year period, established that men with chronic insomnia had four times higher risk of dying prematurely.
At the end of the study period, 9.1 percent of good sleepers had passed away. However, 51.1 percent of the participants who suffered from insomnia died.
Findings not true in women
The same was not true for women though. Women who suffered from chronic sleep deprivation did not face a reduced life, researchers say.
The study gave no explanation as to why there was no increased mortality among women and why the mortality rate increased in men.
"The primary finding of our study is that insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, is associated with significant mortality in men," said Dr Alexandros Vgontzas, professor of psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Need to increase awareness
The study took into account diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure as well as risk factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, depression and obesity that could cause the men to sleep badly.
The study found that men with hypertension or Type 2 diabetes were seven times more likely to die early.
"We believe that cumulatively these findings will increase the awareness among physicians and scientists that insomnia should be diagnosed early and treated appropriately," said Dr Vgontzas.
The authors, however, caution that six hours of sleep is not the ideal or optimum sleep duration. People should try getting eight hours of night sleep daily.
The findings of the study have been published in the medical journal Sleep.