Lack of sleep has been correlated with disease and death.
It seems sleep deprivation modulates the autonomic tone and therefore leads to increase in risk of cardiac arrhythmias.
The next study is quite interesting – either too much (>8 h per night) or too little (<7 h per night) of sleep increases mortality. It starts with an excellent quote “SLEEP IS AN ANCESTRAL AND PRIMITIVE BEHAVIOR THAT IS SHARED ACROSS THE PLANET BY OVER A BILLION PEOPLE ON A DAILY BASIS”
Both quantity and quality of sleep are important.
Things that contribute to poor quality of sleep:
- Alcohol
- Screen use before bed
- Anxiety
- Obesity – contributes to sleep apnea
- Physical factors – noise and light pollution
- Poor sleep hygeine