Update: 2010/05/05 19:21 (Central News Agency, Taipei, May 5th)

Researchers from the UK and Italy have issued a warning that people who sleep fewer than six hours a night may face an early death.

According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), researchers stated that individuals who consistently lack sufficient sleep have a 12% higher mortality rate compared to those who get the "ideal" six to eight hours of sleep.

They also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours and premature death, though excessive sleep may simply be a sign of poor health.

The study, published in the journal *Sleep*, is based on data from 16 studies involving approximately 1.5 million people. The data was drawn from earlier research conducted in the UK, the US, Europe, and East Asian countries to examine the relationship between sleep and mortality.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, who leads the "Sleep, Health and Society Programme" at the University of Warwick in the UK, said: "In modern society, people's average sleep duration is gradually decreasing. This trend is especially prevalent among full-time workers, likely due to societal pressures such as longer working hours and frequent shift rotations."

Cappuccio added: "On the other hand, deteriorating health is often accompanied by longer sleep durations."

If a true causal relationship exists between insufficient sleep and death, it would equate to over 6.3 million people aged 16 and above in the UK dying as a result.

Professor Jim Horne from the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre in the UK believes: "Sleep is merely a reflection of physical and mental health and can be influenced by many illnesses and disorders, including depression."

He stated that improving sleep may not necessarily make people healthier or live longer, "but sleeping fewer than five hours a night suggests something may be wrong with one's health." (Translator: Central News Agency, Lu Yingzi) 990505

Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 100505/ 5/ 254ry. html