Study Reveals Getting Less Than Seven Hours Sleep A Night Could Be Killing Us

A leading expert has revealed that missing out on those all important hours of sleep could actually be killing us.

Professor Matthew Walker has opened up about how a "catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic" is causing a lot of potentially fatal diseases.

Speaking to the Guardian the director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science at the University of California in Berkeley has said that sleep deprivation affects "every aspect of our biology" and is becoming a modern society norm.

Professor Walker said that getting a good night's sleep is key to living a long and healthy night and that we should really try go to bed a lot earlier than we do.

Getting less than seven hours of sleep a night is 'killing us' as it has been linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and poor mental health.

He said, "After just one night of only four or five hours’ sleep, your natural killer cells – the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day – drop by 70 percent."

He insists that we all should have a regular sleep pattern and try switch off from our everyday life and electronics well before bed time.

We have a habit of checking our phones or watching TV before we sleep and we really should put it away every now and again as it has been proven to contribute to sleep deprivation.

Professor Walker said that reaching for coffee after waking up or wanting to sleep past our alarms is a sign that we're lacking sleep.

So there you have it - more sleep can lead to a longer and healthier life so catch some extra zzzs!

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