INSULT + INJURY

It seems the mysteries and anxieties of sleep and insomnia could become even more haunting. Today we learn this (via the Independent):

Sleeping less than six hours a night increases the risk of early death, it was claimed today.

Scientists arrived at the result after analysing data from 16 studies involving more than 1.5 million participants.

They found "unequivocal evidence" of a direct link between sleeping less than six hours a night and dying prematurely.

Yet smug sleepers needn't laugh too readily:

An association was also seen between sleeping more than nine hours a night and early death. This was thought to be due to long-sleeping being a marker of serious underlying illness rather than any effect of sleep itself.

Professor Francesco Cappucio, head of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick, said: "Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health.

Scientific studies are perversely satisfying when nearly everyone loses.

Picture credit: schani (via Flickr)