Sleep and breast cancer

From Slumber Yard:

Sleep quality in general has been linked to breast cancer. In fact, studies have shown that poor sleep or not enough sleep is a definite breast cancer risk factor. A 2018 study, discussed in Science Today, showed that women who functioned “better at the beginning of the day than the end of the day have a lower risk of breast cancer.” It’s important to know that it’s both quality and quantity of sleep that are at play here.

There are several factors that play into quality sleep, whether it be sleep latency or the amount of quality sleep you get. A small study was done on postmenopausal women to see if too little sleep had an effect on breast cancer, the study concluded that it did. The results read, in part, “people who don’t get enough sleep tend to have lower melatonin levels. Lower melatonin levels may lead to patterns of breast cell growth and repair that make breast cancer more likely to develop.”

There’s also been a link between getting too much sleep and a risk of breast cancer. Though this may seem counterintuitive, a study did show a correlation. According to research, “an increased risk trend was found between sleep duration and breast cancer; our study also indicated that, compared to women with a normal sleep duration, women with a longer sleep duration might have a significantly increased risk of breast cancer; this was not observed among women with a shorter sleep duration.” So if you find yourself exhausted or sleeping longer than a recommended amount of time, you should bring this up to your doctor and make sure there are no underlying causes for the tiredness.

Story source: Slumber Yard.