Study links insomnia to early deaths in men
Ottawa Citizen
June 8, 2009
A new study could give restless men something else to lose sleep over: insomnia appears to increase their risk of an earlier death.
Researchers who followed more than 1,700 people from Pennsylvania found men who slept six or less hours a night were about four times more likely to die over the course of 14 years of followup than men without insomnia who slept more than six hours.
Lead author Dr. Alexandros Vgontzas, who will present his study today at an international sleep conference, says insomnia is associated with the same rates of medical complications and mortality seen in people with obstructive sleep apnea, when breathing can stop for 10 or more seconds at a time throughout the night.
In April, his team reported that insomnia increases the risk of high blood pressure, while other studies have found that people who sleep less than six hours a night have a higher risk of heart attacks and stroke.
Another team using data from nearly 30,000 Americans after a household survey in 2005 will report today that short sleep periods of five hours per night or less, as well as long sleep periods of nine hours or more — increase the risk of diabetes.
Vgontzas says the new research shows insomnia “is not an insignificant thing.”
“This type of insomnia should be a priority in terms of medical intervention and treatment,” says Vgontzas, endowed chair in sleep disorders medicine at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Past studies have been mixed, or have found no link between sleepless nights and a shortened lifespan.
But Vgontzas looked at a specific kind of sleeplessness — insomnia, meaning trouble falling or staying asleep, with “short sleep duration” of six hours or less of nightly sleep. As well, all participants in his study spent a night in a sleep lab so researchers could objectively measure just how much sleep they were getting, rather than rely on self-reported sleep.
The study included data from a random sample of 1,741 men and women in central Pennsylvania, with an average age of 49. Men were followed for up to 14 years, women for up to 10.
“What we found is that, in men, this type of insomnia (six or fewer hours of nightly sleep) is associated with a significant risk of death,” Vgontzas says.
The finding held after obesity, sleep-disordered breathing, age, depression and other factors were taken into account.
Insomniacs have higher levels of cortisol and other stress hormones that have been linked to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that includes a bigger waist circumference, high cholesterol and elevated fat in the blood.
The researchers did not find a link between increased mortality and short sleep in women, and fewer women died during the followup.
“However, it might be possible that this is a specific finding only for men, that it doesn’t apply to women,” Vgontzas says. “But we don’t have the answer to that.”
:zzz:
Ottawa Citizen
June 8, 2009
A new study could give restless men something else to lose sleep over: insomnia appears to increase their risk of an earlier death.
Researchers who followed more than 1,700 people from Pennsylvania found men who slept six or less hours a night were about four times more likely to die over the course of 14 years of followup than men without insomnia who slept more than six hours.
Lead author Dr. Alexandros Vgontzas, who will present his study today at an international sleep conference, says insomnia is associated with the same rates of medical complications and mortality seen in people with obstructive sleep apnea, when breathing can stop for 10 or more seconds at a time throughout the night.
In April, his team reported that insomnia increases the risk of high blood pressure, while other studies have found that people who sleep less than six hours a night have a higher risk of heart attacks and stroke.
Another team using data from nearly 30,000 Americans after a household survey in 2005 will report today that short sleep periods of five hours per night or less, as well as long sleep periods of nine hours or more — increase the risk of diabetes.
Vgontzas says the new research shows insomnia “is not an insignificant thing.”
“This type of insomnia should be a priority in terms of medical intervention and treatment,” says Vgontzas, endowed chair in sleep disorders medicine at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Past studies have been mixed, or have found no link between sleepless nights and a shortened lifespan.
But Vgontzas looked at a specific kind of sleeplessness — insomnia, meaning trouble falling or staying asleep, with “short sleep duration” of six hours or less of nightly sleep. As well, all participants in his study spent a night in a sleep lab so researchers could objectively measure just how much sleep they were getting, rather than rely on self-reported sleep.
The study included data from a random sample of 1,741 men and women in central Pennsylvania, with an average age of 49. Men were followed for up to 14 years, women for up to 10.
“What we found is that, in men, this type of insomnia (six or fewer hours of nightly sleep) is associated with a significant risk of death,” Vgontzas says.
The finding held after obesity, sleep-disordered breathing, age, depression and other factors were taken into account.
Insomniacs have higher levels of cortisol and other stress hormones that have been linked to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that includes a bigger waist circumference, high cholesterol and elevated fat in the blood.
The researchers did not find a link between increased mortality and short sleep in women, and fewer women died during the followup.
“However, it might be possible that this is a specific finding only for men, that it doesn’t apply to women,” Vgontzas says. “But we don’t have the answer to that.”
:zzz:
