Being a morning person could reduce your risk of breast cancer: Study

A new study claims early risers are less likely to develop breast cancer. Researchers also say sleeping for more than eight hours can increase your risk of the disease.

One in seven women will reportedly develop breast cancer in their lives. While previous research has found a strong link between night shift work and the risk of breast cancer, there is not sufficient research on how sleep patterns can increase the risk of the deadly disease. That is why a team of researchers decided to investigate whether certain sleep habit could, in fact, increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.

For the study, the team used a method called Mendelian randomisation, to examine genetic variants linked with three types of sleep traits - morning or evening preference, sleep duration, and insomnia. The team used data of 180,216 women in the UK Biobank study and 228,951 women in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) study for their investigation.

The results showed morning preference was linked with reduced risk of breast cancer than evening preference. However, the researchers noted that further research is needed as there were some limitations. They had to mostly rely on self-reported sleep measures and only conducted the study on women of European ancestry. However, the team sates the findings "have potential implications for influencing sleep habits of the general population in order to improve health."

Professor Eva Schernhammer from the University of Vienna told a news portal the results "identify a need for future research exploring how the stresses on our biological clock can be reduced." She further went on to explain that the research "could also help to align working hours with chronotype -- to more closely match externally imposed timing with individual diurnal preference, especially in the working population."

The study's findings were originally published in The BMJ.