Several studies have already shown that quality sleep improved the chances of survival after a breast cancer.
However, Professor Amanda Phipps, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington wanted to assess whether all the characteristics of sleep had the same influence as survival after cancer.
The researchers therefore analyzed data from 21,230 women who were part of a national study of postmenopausal women and who had been diagnosed with primary cancer (cancer that has not metastasized to other parts of the body). They then asked them about their sleeping habits.
Lack of sleep stimulates tumor growth
Their findings show that, compared to women with breast cancer who rarely snore and sleep at least 7-8 hours each night, those who snore more than 5 nights a week and sleep less than 6 hours a night are twice as likely to die from breast cancer.
These results confirm previous findings which indicated that sleep problems may stimulate tumor growth and reduce the chances of survival, arguably because poor sleep negatively impacts inflammatory pathways.
This study was published in the journal Journal of clinical sleep medicine.
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