Beauty sleep concept is not a myth, says study

| Thursday December 16, 2010 00:00

People deprived of sleep for long periods appear less attractive and more unhealthy than those who are well rested, say researchers. Volunteers were photographed after eight hours sleep and again after being kept awake for 31 hours.

Observers scored the sleep-deprived participants as less healthy and less attractive, the BMJ reports.

The concept of beauty sleep is well known. But, according to researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, it has lacked scientific support. The team asked untrained observers to rate the faces of 23 young men and women who had been photographed after a normal night's sleep and then after a night of sleep deprivation.

The photographs were standardised so that people were the same distance from the camera, wore no make-up and used the same expression. The observers rated the sleep-deprived as less healthy, more tired and less attractive than those who had had enough sleep. The authors wrote in their paper published in the British Medical Journal: 'Sleep deprived people are perceived as less attractive, less healthy and more tired compared with when they are well rested.'

They say the results may be useful in a medical setting, helping doctors to pick up signs of ill-health in their patients. Meanwhile earlier studies have shown that little sleep - anything less than six hours can lead to an early grave. The research done by UK and Italian researchers have warned that people regularly having such little sleep were 12 percent more likely to die over a 25-year period than those who got an 'ideal' six to eight hours.

However, they also found an association between sleeping for more than nine hours and early death, although that much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health.

Sleep journal reports the findings, based on 1.5m people in 16 studies. The study looked at the relationship between sleep and mortality by reviewing earlier studies from the UK, US and European and East Asian countries.

Premature death from all causes was linked to getting either too little or too much sleep outside of the 'ideal' six to eight hours per night.

But while a lack of sleep may be a direct cause of ill health, ultimately leading to an earlier death, too much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health already, the researchers believe. (BBC)