Getting less amount of sleep might lead to fractures, study states

Do you sleep for 5 hours or less every night? A recent study that was conducted found that sleep length can be associated with an increased risk of fractures. The study compared women who slept for about seven to eight hours with women who slept for five to six hours every night and found that the latter group had a 25 percent greater chance of experiencing recurrent falls. This, of course, meant that these women were at a higher risk of experiencing fractures from their falls, particularly upper limb, lower limb, and central body fractures.



It was found that the annualised rate of recurrent fall events for women who slept for five hours was 10.6 percent and was 7.0 percent among women sleeping seven to eight hours per night. "Falls are an important public health problem among older adults and lead to moderate to severe injuries. Most fractures occur because of falls, and recent evidence shows that mortality from falls in the US is increasing," said Dr Jane Cauley, lead author of the study.



"Even though falls are caused by a number of factors, our paper focuses on a novel risk factor: sleep. Results suggest that interventions aimed at improving sleep may reduce the risk of falls," he explained.