Dr Bollmann, Skin Care Specialist, Anti-Aging Expert

Trouble sleeping affects many people today, due to stress and other worries placed on us by society. Estimates are that approx 1 in 8 or 11.76%, or 32 million people in USA suffer from insomnia.

Previous studies suggest that insomnia associates with increased risk of death.  Sairam Parthasarathy, from the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson (Arizona, USA), and colleagues  analyzed data collected on 1409 subjects enrolled in the Tucson Epidemiological Study of Airway Obstructive Disease (TESAOD), which commenced in 1972, involved multiple follow-up surveys and mortality follow-up data for a total of 38 years. 

At the study’s start and multiple time-points during the study period, blood was collected and serum samples cryopreserved.  Follow-up surveys assessed participants for sleep and related habits.  Researchers analyzed data for the persistence of insomnia.  Using data from the baseline 1972-1973 survey and the 1990-1992 follow-up survey, the researchers found that levels of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) – a marker of inflammation – increased significantly only in the persistent-insomnia group. Inflammation is currently believed to be the main culprit in the aging process.

In those subjects where CRP data was available, persistent insomnia associated with a 58% increased mortality risk (after adjustments for confounding factors).  The study authors report that: “In a population-based cohort, persistent, and not intermittent, insomnia was associated with increased risk for all-cause and cardiopulmonary mortality and was associated with a steeper increase in inflammation.”