Dying to sleep

Poor quality sleep - whether from insomnia, sleep fragmentation, or nightmares - is associated with increased risk of death, a new finding reveals. One study, conducted at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, suggests that insomnia may be as hazardous as obstructive sleep apnea.

"Insomnia with objective short sleep duration is associated with an activation of the stress system, i.e., higher secretion of cortisol and increased risk of high blood pressure," says lead author Dr Alexandros Vgontzas, who presented his study in Seattle at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. He and his associates examined the effects of insomnia that persisted for at least one year and objective short sleep duration on mortality.

The subjects included 1,741 randomly selected men and women. During 14 years of follow-up among men, the mortality rate was 19.6 percent. Among women, who were followed for 10 years, the mortality was 10.3 percent.