A catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic is causing a host of potentially fatal diseases, according to professor Matthew Walker, director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. In a recent interview, he warns that sleep deprivation is not being taken seriously enough by employers and everyday people alike. According to his research, there is a powerful link between a lack of sleep and cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other conditions.
Source: The Guardian, September 24, 2017.
Scientists count anything less than seven hours’ sleep as sleep deprivation. “No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation,” Walker says. “It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny. And yet no one is doing anything about it. Things have to change: in the workplace and our communities, our homes and families.”