According to research last year, poor sleep habits can knock years off your life – to be more precise, around five if you’re a man and almost two and a half if you’re a woman.
The study looked at more than 172,000 adults and assessed what are known as ‘low-risk sleep behaviours’.
Subjects were given plus points for being early birds (rather than night owls); sleeping seven to eight hours a day; not having insomnia; not snoring, and not feeling tired during the day.
The evidence seemed to show those who scored more highly tended to live longer than those with poorer sleep habits.
Sleep is essential for the body to heal and restore itself.
Poor sleep means that these processes can’t happen efficiently and the result is an increased risk of a number of diseases, including heart attacks, dementia and diabetes.