Lack of Good Sleep Might Be Deadly

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"I don't think one should get too excited about it because 5 percent is not a big change as far as epidemiological studies are concerned," Rummo said. "Sicker people, for whatever reason, will have disturbed sleep. It's a chicken-and-egg argument. Is it the sleep itself that is making people die or some underlying factor that sleep is reflecting? Sleep is a very sensitive indicator as to how well we are."

The second study found that men with insomnia who sleep fewer than six hours each night are also at an increased risk of dying compared with people who sleep longer.

Less sleep has previously been linked with hypertension and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

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Almost 2,000 men and women were followed for more than a decade, after initially being examined in a sleep laboratory.

Men with insomnia who slept five or fewer hours a night had a more than fourfold higher risk of dying during the study period; men with insomnia who slept five to six hours a night had a fivefold increased risk, compared with those sleeping a relatively luxurious six or more hours.

Women with insomnia also had a higher mortality risk, but it was not significant, stated the authors, from the Penn State College of Medicine, in Hershey, Pa.

"This confirms something we've been concerned about for a long time -- that insomnia probably does cause health problems," Boethel said. "Men are less likely to complain about insomnia. They are also more likely to be shift workers where they're less likely to get sleep, especially if they're working rotating schedules. It would be interesting to see in the study how many were actually shift workers."

A final study, based on a survey of more than 1,500 adults age 60 and over, concluded that fewer than half of older Americans are getting enough sleep.

More than half of the participants, 55 percent, reported that they had slept an average of seven hours or less each night over the last month. Almost two-thirds (61 percent) said it took them 15 minutes or less to fall asleep, reported researchers from the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

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