Does Sleep Deprivation Really Impose Cancer Risk?

Having cancer is a probably the worst thing that may ever happen to one’s life even if the disease was diagnosed at its early stage and treatable. For the time being, discovering treatment for the disease are still underway.

Surprisingly, several experts speculated that there have been connections made between sleep and cancer.  

There is no doubt that getting the right amount of sleep is beneficial for both healthy people and those who are fighting against cancer. However, there is firm evidence that people who sleep less than six hours a night could be more possibly to have dangerous polyps in their colon or rectum compared to those who are well-rested. In a study published by the journal, Cancer last October, it showed that there was a link found between sleep duration and risk of polyps, which are directly associated with the risk of colon cancer.

Polyps is the abnormal growths detected through a colonoscopy. It can develop and become cancerous tumors. In fact, it exactly happens in about 10 percent of most cases.

According to the National Cancer Institute, this year, more than 140,000 Americans was foreseen to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and some 51,000 of which will die from the disease.

Researchers at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland studied 1240 men and women who visit their hospital for regular schedule of colonoscopy. The researchers found out that 338 of the said figure have polyps. It accounts for 27 percent of the total number of participants.

The researchers analyzed the sleeping patterns of the participants and found a higher rate of polyps in people who reported having sleep deprivation or less than 6 hours of sleep a night than those who sleep seven or more hours every night.

The difference in sleep time between the polyp patients and those without the lesions was actually small, in fact, it is only an average of 19 minutes. However, more polyp patients admitted they slept for much less than six hours, while some said they slept more than seven hours.

Nevertheless, people should not be alarmed since even if this newly discovered association is underlying, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have colon cancer.  The study only shows that sleep deprivation can be a cause of polyps to occur. Also, the study reflects the fact that those people who do not get the right amount of sleep at night might have the same chance for developing colorectal cancer like the others who are at high risk for illnesses.

The researchers further remind people that the said study is just one in a thousand of studies to come.

It is no longer surprising if sleep deprivation can cause polyps that can be more likely to result in cancer in the future since we all know that sleep deprivation can cause a lot of health threats to one’s health. Therefore, to prevent all illnesses that may occur, stop the main root of all problems, the sleep deprivation by taking natural sleep aids.

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