Some time ago there was a BBC programme about the terrible things that broken sleep does to a person. A friend who worked on the Radio 4 Today programme was rattled; she had to start at about 3.30am, and it turned out irregular sleep reduces your immune levels.
Now a UCL study of a cohort of more than 25,000 people over five years proves the point. People working 55 hours a week or more have the poorest sleep, as do those with broken sleep — waking up in the middle of the night or early in the morning. The same was true of shift or weekend workers. And you know what bad sleep means? It means a greater risk of diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke.
