Less Than Six Hours Sleep Can Contribute To Early Death, Says Study

A study has found that early death can be caused by regularly sleeping less than six hours each night, according to The Guardian.

The study also found that too much sleep could cause health problems, however sleeping for six to eight hours each night is optimal for good health.

Conducted by academics in the UK and Italy, the research found absolute evidence that abnormal sleep patterns can potentially harm health.

People looking to get their full eight hours in order to optimise the health benefits of a good night's sleep should consult a hypnotherapist if they find it hard to get a healthy amount of sleep.

People who slept for under six hours each night were 12% more likely to die prematurely over 25 years than those who slept for six to eight hours. People who slept more than nine hours each night are also more likely to die early, but that was because oversleeping is a potential indicator of underlying ill health, rather than being a risk.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, who led the study and is 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... the deterioration of our health status is often accompanied by an extension of our sleeping time."

Benjamin Franklin

Some sources claim that Benjamin Franklin slept 2-4 hours a night.

Though we all know his famous quote: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Actually, Franklin’s reputation regarding limiting sleep is closely akin to his reputation for frugality – "A penny saved is a penny earned," and all that. Sleep is something that is natural, but has the potential for being misused. (Too much of a good thing, in other words.) In Franklin’s day, industriousness and hard work were extremely important human virtues. Edison adopted Franklin’s philosophy as well, and in both cases, it was important for them to model their behavior in a way that suggested that they didn’t sleep very much. To them, it meant that they were diligent and demanding in their lives, and never lazy in any way. In Franklin’s autobiography, he explains his quest (tongue-in-cheek) for moral perfection. In his principles for order, Franklin offered appropriate activities for each hour of the day. In his thesis, Franklin allocated only 4 hours of sleep per night. This tenet is the most often quoted reference to the myth of Franklin’s lack of sleep.

"There will be sleeping enough in the grave."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Albert Einstein

The story goes that Albert Einstein liked to sleep 10 hours a night - unless he was working very hard on an idea; then it was 11. He claimed that his dreams helped him to invent.