睡眠剥夺引起癌症，糖尿病和心脏病的风险

Sleep deprivation raises risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease

Sleeping well means both the duration and quality.    Sleep deprivation, which means you do not sleep long enough, affects your immune system and increases risk for many chronic diseases including obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies find sleep deprivation is a risk factor for pediatric diabetes and children need more sleep than adults.  Compared to children who sleep 12 hours a day, children sleeping eight hours or less a night can have increased risk for obesity and insulin resistance.

Sleep deprivation also impairs memory.  In adults, sleep deprivation leads to the buildup of amyloid plaque, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

Without sufficient sleep, many bodily functions cannot do their jobs completely.  Sleep is related to the production of a hormone called melatonin, which is an antioxidant and important for cancer prevention.  Sleep deprivation results in diminishing of this antioxidant and increasing risk of cancer.  During sleep, the body needs to detoxify the brain and repair many bodily functions.  So without sufficient sleep, many bodily functions can be compromised.

Studies show sleep for one hour less per night can raise risk for inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes mellitus, cancer and stress.  A single night of poor sleep can impair physical movements and mental alertness. The negative impact is equivalent to the effect of an alcohol concentration of 0.10 percent in the blood.  Sleeping is important for maintaining emotion balance too.

But do not count on sleeping pills to sleep well.  Research indicates sleeping pills do not work as expected and can actually cause serious side effects.  In fact, it takes longer time (15 minutes longer) for people who take sleeping pills to fall asleep even though they increase the sleep time by a small margin – no more than 11 minutes.

Sleeping pills can also increase cancer risk.  Research shows that people who use sleeping pills are 35% more likely to develop cancer and about four times as likely to die from any cause, compared to nonusers.   This could mean it is possible that people need sleeping pills have a history of poor sleep which is responsible for the increased cancer risk.  It can also be possible that the drugs may actually raise the cancer risk.

For adults, seven to nine hours of sleep per day is optimal for health.  Those who sleep less than six hours per day or have habitual sleep deprivation are at risk for psychological and physical consequences.  Poor sleep or sleep deprivation can directly lead to car incidents, heart disease, premature birth, impaired memory and compromised academic performance and productivity, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, stomach ulcers, cancer, hypertension, osteoporosis, accidents at work, premature aging, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, reduced immunity, increased risk for death.

If you could not fall asleep quickly and could not have a good night sleep, you need to check and see if there is something around you or in your life that interfere with your sleep.   Many factors can affect your duration and quality of your sleep.  You will also need to see if your physics have any medical problems.  In any case, you should avoid sleep deprivation.  You should give yourselves enough time for sleep. (Dr. Lu)