Want to live longer? Sleep well

Washington: If you tend to sleep less during the night's you may be putting your health at risk as a new study claims that lack in your "shut eye" time could cause long-term health issues.

According to Postdoc Alice Jessie Clark at the University of Copenhagen maintaining a good night's sleep is important for future health, partly because of how it affects lifestyle factors, as when sleep deteriorates people were more likely to make unhealthy lifestyle changes.

Having a good night's sleep was found to make it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle. For example; they found that smokers who maintained a sleeping pattern characterised by normal sleep duration and undisturbed nights were less likely to still be smoking and more likely to have quit smoking four years on, when compared to those who either shortened their average sleep duration or experienced an increase in sleep disturbances.

Clark concluded that better knowledge of the importance of sleep may help people make informed decisions about prioritizing how to spend the night - caching up on work emails, surfing social media or going to bed and ensuring a better sleep.

The research is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.