• Question: is it true that the people who sleep less than 6 hours get cancer

    Asked by cristiano7 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 10 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by cherry16, cherry1, kieranworsley00.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      My first thought would be to say that no because it’s doubtful that there is enough scientific evidence to prove sleeping less than 6 hours increases your risk of cancer.

      I remember earlier this year there was a discovery made that when mice had their sleep disrupted they were more likely to get cancer than mice that had a good nights sleep. It’s important to remember that studies on mice may give you results that mean nothing for humans and its important to look at the what the scientists did in the study in detail.

    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I agree with Matt that there’s not enough evidence that lack of sleep will increase your cancer risk.
      Lack of sleep can hurt your body in other ways though, it can stunt your growth and make you tired and grouchy!

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I would say no, ive not heard of any research linking lack of sleep and cancer.

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      There have been studies to say that people who sleep less than 6 hours a day might, on average, live shorter lives than people who get more sleep per night, but like Matt says, it is really important to look at exactly what the scientists looked at, or sometimes more importantly, what they didn’t include in their experiments. For example, it could be that people who sleep less spend the hours they are not sleeping doing other things that can shorten life, like smoking or overeating. The true story is likely to be more complicated than that, but it is important to think about exactly what is being measured in any experiment otherwise you might make the wrong conclusion.

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