Regular desires might help hold you wholesome, examine finds

The type of sleep you get, rather than simply how long, may influence the risk of developing dozens of diseases, a study found.

While previous studies have shown that getting six to eight hours of sleep a night reduces the risk of several health conditions, there has been little research on how the different sleep stages relate to health.

Now, a Chinese-led study of more than 95,000 UK adults found that those who got more rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – the stage linked to dreaming – had lower risks of 83 diseases.

REM sleep begins about 90 minutes after you fall asleep, and the stage repeats every 90 minutes, taking up about 20 to 25 per cent of your total sleep. The rest of your sleep is made up of light sleep and deep sleep.

Waking up early cuts REM sleep short because these periods become much longer during the second half of the night.

To measure participants’ sleep, researchers asked them to wear wrist sensors for seven days.

They analysed the duration of each sleep stage, total sleep duration, night-time wakefulness and sleep irregularity.

Participants were then followed for around nine years, with researchers examining links between sleep patterns and more than 1,000 diseases.

People who spent more time in REM sleep had a 26 per cent lower risk of heart failure, a 46 per cent lower risk of dementia and an 80 per cent lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.

The findings were linked to about 48 extra minutes spent in REM sleep.

People who spent more time in deep sleep also had health benefits, with a lower risk of seven conditions, including type 2 diabetes and major depression.

Irregular sleep patterns and waking during the night were associated with a higher risk of conditions including anxiety and substance use disorders.

Participants who regularly slept for six to eight hours carried the lowest risk of disease overall, while those sleeping less than five hours faced an increased risk of 37 conditions.