There is a perception that time spent asleep is time wasted, but is widely recognized

that inadequate sleep is associated with multiple acute and chronic conditions and results

in the increased risk of death and disease.

Force people to go one week with only six hours of sleep a night.

You can change expression of more than 700 genes.

The most dire effect may be endothelial dysfunction.

The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that covers the internal surface of blood

vessels and is responsible for allowing our arteries to relax and dilate back open properly.

Randomize people for about a week to get five rather than seven hours of sleep, and just that

two-hour difference a night resulted in a significant

impairment in artery function.

Okay, but what do these numbers mean?

I mean, how bad is a week of five-hour nights?

Sleep deprivation is no joke.

The magnitude of impairment is similar to that reported in people who smoke, have diabetes,

or have coronary artery

disease.

No wonder, people who sleep less than seven hours a night may experience a 12 to 35 percent

increased risk of premature death compared to those who get a full seven hours.

Yet a significant proportion of the population may routinely get less than that.

Sufficiently long, restful sleep sessions each night are said to be an indisputable cornerstone of good health.

Okay, so what can we do about it?

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