People who sleep more than nine hours would have a higher risk of suffering from an infection.
- As part of this study, 1,848 questionnaires relating to quality, duration of sleep and infections were collected from all over Norway.
- People who reported sleeping less than six hours a night were 27% more likely to suffer from an infection.
- Sleeping more than nine hours increases the risk of getting sick by 44%.
We know it: a good night’s sleep can help us solve many problems. However, the longer one sleeps, the more one would be vulnerable to infections. This was revealed by researchers from the University of Bergen (Norway) in a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. “We sought to assess whether insomnia, chronic sleep problems and sleep duration were associated with the risk of infections and the use of antibiotics in patients who visit their general practitioner”, they indicated.
1,848 sleep questionnaires were collected
For the purposes of the research, the scientists gave a questionnaire to medical students and asked them to distribute it to patients in the waiting rooms of the offices where they worked. A total of 1,848 questionnaires were collected across Norway. They asked adults to describe the quality of their sleep, specifically how long they usually sleep, how they feel like they sleep and when they prefer to sleep. Participants were also asked if they had had any infections or taken antibiotics in the past three months.
More risk of infection if you sleep less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours
According to the results, volunteers who reported sleeping less than six hours per night were 27% more likely to suffer from an infection, while patients sleeping more than nine hours were 44% more likely to report one. A short night’s sleep or chronic insomnia also increased the risk of having to take an antibiotic to fight an infection.
“We don’t know why patients visited their GP, and it could be that an underlying health condition affects both the risk of poor sleep and the risk of infection, but we don’t think this can fully explain our results.(…) Insomnia is very common in primary care patients, but it turns out that it is not sufficiently recognized by general practitioners.There is a need for more patient awareness and GPs to the importance of sleep, not only for general well-being, but also for the health of patients”, said Ingeborg Forthun, author of the research, in a statement.
Advertisement
