Sleep deprivation in UK ''a myth''
16/10/2008
The belief that sleep deprivation is a major element in obesity and diabetes is an exaggerated one, a university professor has said.
Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University said that most people in Britain needed far less than eight hours in bed per night.
He stated that people were more likely to forego extra sleeping hours to do something more productive such as sport, socialising with friends or watching TV - something which Professor Horne sees as the way forward for people with busy schedules.
"My assertion is that the vast majority of people sleep perfectly adequately," he wrote in a piece for New Scientist magazine.
"That''s not to say that sleep deprivation doesn''t exist. But in general we''ve never had it so good."
Professor Horne''s study contradicts the recent discovery by scientists at the University of South Australia, who linked sleep deprivation to childhood obesity.
