Getting the right amount of sleep each day is just as important as eating the right amount of food. In fact, sleep duration may even be more important. Scientists, researchers, and psychologists all agree that sleep conditions can actually harm a person’s health and cause them to suffer from chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Lack of sleep damages a person’s physical health and also impairs his or her ability to think properly, and memory is affected as well. The recommended amount of sleep is seven to eight hours each night. However, if you sleep more or sleep less than the necessary seven to eight hours, you can put your health in severe danger as both circumstances have their own implications. A study was recently conducted in order to depict whether there could a link between sleep duration and ulcerative colitis, a chronic condition that causes an inflammation in the intestines.
What Is Ulcerative Colitis?
Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes chronic inflammation of the colon, also known as the large intestine. Patients who suffer from ulcerative colitis, inflammation of the inner lining of the colon, and ulcers show symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding.
The Study: Sleep Duration and Ulcerative Colitis
The findings of the study confirmed that a person is most likely to suffer from the disease if he or she sleeps more or less than seven to eight hours of sleep. The study authors also stated that the sleep patterns as well as the quality of sleep played a huge role in the development of ulcerative colitis. So, it can be said with utmost conviction that there is a link between sleep duration and ulcerative colitis. The quality and length of your sleep can affect your risk of developing the disease.
The study, which was recently published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, also included data on the women who were enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study of 1976 and Nurses’ Health Study of 1989. Each year, the women were handed detailed questionnaires, which the researchers then used to study the link between sleep duration and ulcerative colitis.
Even though a link between sleep duration and ulcerative colitis has been discovered, there is no proof of a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
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