Shakespeare called sleep the chief nourisher in life’s feast. But today we know it’s so much more. Insufficient sleep contributes to the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. And now a study finds that too little or too much sleep are both associated with a significant increase in sick days away from work.
Almost 4,000 men and women between 30 and 64 years old (in Finland) participated in the study, which followed them for seven years. The research revealed that the absence from work due to illness increased dramatically for those who said they slept less than six hours or more than nine hours per night. The sleep time that was associated with the lowest number of sick days was seven hours 38 minutes for women and seven hours 46 minutes for men. The study is in the journal Sleep. [Tea Lallukka, Sleep and Sickness Absence: A Nationally Representative Register-Based Follow-Up study]
Of course these findings are associative and not necessarily causal. Other factors may be responsible for the under- or oversleeping to begin with. But sleep patterns are still a warning sign for increased illness and health complications. Shakespeare put it best: Sleep…that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care.
—Christie Nicholson
