Regularly sleeping less than five hours a night is linked to a higher risk of developing 37 dangerous conditions, scientists concluded after analyzing data from a large-scale study, according to infohub.kz.
The work drew on data from 95,559 UK Biobank participants who wore activity trackers for a week. Using a deep learning algorithm, the researchers assessed total sleep duration, sleep stages and frequent nighttime awakenings.
Sleep duration turned out to be linked to the development of 86 different diseases. For 69 of them, the lowest risk was recorded at six to eight hours of nighttime rest.
The researchers paid particular attention to sleep quality. A high proportion of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is accompanied by vivid dreams and rapid eye movements, was associated with a lower risk of developing 83 diagnoses. It is during this stage that the brain processes emotions, strengthens memory and restores neural connections.
The authors stress that the study is observational and does not prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Still, the findings help define healthy sleep norms more precisely for the prevention of serious diseases.