babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Worried About Dad: Study Says Men With Trouble Sleeping Four Times As Likely To Die
Today in the journal Sleep, researchers report that men who suffer from insomnia are four times as likely to die as men who sleep well. The study looked at 1,741 people with an average age of 50 and followed them for between 10 and 14 years.
They found that men with reported insomnia (verified in a sleep lab) were four times as likely to die during the course of the study. When hypertension or diabetes were added to the picture, the men were seven times as likely to die as the ones who reported no sleep difficulties.
It’s no surprise that sleep affects health–not getting enough zzz’s has been linked to memory loss and other chronic medical conditions. But the researchers say they were astonished to see such a big difference in mortality rates.
What did the scientists deem as “insomnia”–how many hours of rest did the men need to be considered good sleepers? And what about women?
The men who slept fewer than six hours were considered to have insomnia. Even though doctors recommend getting seven or eight per night, the cutoff at six was where researchers found the big jump. Again, they tested the subjects in sleep labs to see just how their night progressed.
Meanwhile, women showed no increased mortality when their sleep was sub-par. The scientists say they don’t know why, but they suspect women’s insomnia may not be as severe. They also studied them for 10 years, whereas they tracked the men for 14.
It’s kind of scary for me to read, because both my dad and husband have what I would call chronic sleep problems. For my dad, it’s waking up really early in the morning (he’s been known to go into his university lab at 3:00 a.m. when he can’t sleep). My husband is just a night owl and regularly goes to bed at 1:00 a.m. or later. That used to be fine, but now that we have a little built-in-kid-alarm, he’s up way too early in the morning to catch up on sleep.
Needless to say, i’ll be forwarding this study to the two most important men in my life.
Image:
Go Back To Strollerderby
0 Comments
[...] Worried About Dad: Study Says Men With Trouble Sleeping Four Times as Likely to Die. [...]
Report Shows Doctors Misdiagnosed in Whooping Cough Infant Deaths | Strollerderby commented on Sep 07 10 at 5:42 pm[...] Worried About Dad: Study Says Men With Trouble Sleeping Four Times as Likely to Die. [...]
Study Shows the Swine Flu Wasn't Worse Than Others. | Strollerderby commented on Sep 08 10 at 6:02 pmRosana commented on Sep 02 10 at 8:41 amIs the insomnia the direct reason for the death risk or is it anxiety, depression, etc. that could cause the insomnia, the real reason for the early death risk?
Newby commented on Sep 02 10 at 2:16 pmDoes it count as “insomnia” if you have no trouble sleeping except for the fact that there is a toddler in the bed next to you kicking your head? I.e. is insomnia difficulty sleeping when conditions for sleeping are good, or is it just not getting adequate sleep?
lisa commented on Sep 02 10 at 2:52 pmMore likely to die of what?? We’re all *likely* to die. What does this really show??
Voice of Reason commented on Sep 02 10 at 5:18 pm@Lisa – please don’t burst my husband’s bubble! He doesn’t suffer from insomnia and therefore assumed he was immortal!
deebee commented on Sep 15 10 at 1:35 pmwow, pretty sure everyone dies, even though we’d all like to think differently! ;)
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0