Adequate sleep isn’t a luxury; it’s essential. And for men, it might even mean the difference between life and death, a preliminary study suggests.
Researchers found that men younger than 65 who slept just three to five hours a night were 55 percent more likely to develop fatal prostate cancer than those who got the recommended seven hours of shuteye nightly.
And, six hours of sleep a night was linked to a 29 percent higher risk of prostate cancer death compared to seven hours.
“If confirmed in other studies, these findings would contribute to evidence suggesting the importance of obtaining adequate sleep for better health,” said lead study author Susan Gapstur, vice president of epidemiology at the American Cancer Society.
However, more research is needed to better understand the biologic mechanisms, said Gapstur. For now, she considers the study “intriguing” but not substantive enough to cause sleep-deprived males any alarm.
Still, the findings contribute to evidence that the body’s natural sleep/wake cycle — circadian rhythms — might play a role in prostate cancer development, Gapstur said.