Lots or Little Sleep Linked to Sick Days

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Absence from work due to illness increased dramatically for those who slept less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours per night. Christie Nicholson reports. Sep 29, 2014 | |

called sleep the But today we know it’s so much more. contributes to the risk of , and . 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 6 hours or more than 9 hours per night. The sleep time that was associated with the lowest number of sick days was 7 hours 38 minutes for women and 7 hours 46 minutes for men. The study is in the journal Sleep. [Tea Lallukka, ]


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….


—Christie Nicholson




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