By Pure Matters The study found that men who reported having
insomnia or who slept for short periods of time were more likely
to die over a 14-year period than men who slept well. "Insomnia
has potentially very severe side effects," says study co-author
Edward Bixler, Ph.D. "It needs to be treated, and more effort
needs to be put into sorting out better treatments." How Much
Sleep Are You Really Getting? Previous research has looked at
sleep's effects on lifespan, but the new study is unique. It
takes into account both people's perceptions about how much
sleep they are getting - which can be wrong - and the actual
amount of sleep they got in a sleep lab. Dr. Bixler and his
colleagues studied 1,700 people from central Pennsylvania and
followed the men (average age 50) for 14 years and the women
(average age 47) for a decade. The participants answered
questions and spent a night in a sleep lab. About a fifth of the
men died during the study period, while 5 percent of the women
died. Dr. Bixler says one factor m