People will be officially informed about the number of hours of sleep they need

Government ministers are about to introduce guidelines telling the public how much time it should sleep, according to a draft policy leaked.

As part of a series of proposals to improve public health in the UK, ministers should recommend appropriate amounts of sleep for different age groups.

The published draft indicates that sleeping less than seven hours a night is linked to a number of physical and mental health problems.

Evidence shows that health problems badociated with lack of sleep include obesity, stroke, heart attacks, depression, and anxiety, the project says.

The directions come from a Green Paper on Public Health that is expected to be released in the future by Health Secretary Matt Hanbad.

It is said that much of the article focuses on obesity and smoking, but also refers to sleep.

The draft disclosed reads as follows: "As a first step, the government will review the evidence on sleep and health.

"This is to inform the public of clear recommendations for recommended sleep times per day for people of different age groups and to raise public awareness of key factors in sleep hygiene that may promote healthy sleep. "

The paper also suggests that sleep deprivation may slow recovery after illness or surgery.

The health secretary is expected to publish the full list of proposals that are aimed primarily at reducing obesity and smoking in order to save NHS money and prevent disease.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said they were not commenting on the leaks.

Russell Foster, Professor of Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, told The Times that there was irrefutable evidence that a decent sleep could help protect against conditions such as as diabetes, dementia and depression.

However, he added that ministers must be cautious when making radical recommendations because there are "a lot of individual variations".

A proposal currently under consideration for the National Health Service is to introduce an hour of protected sleep, in which patients would not be awake without a good clinical reason.

In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, a team of German scientists discovered that sleep improves the ability of immune cells to reach their targets and fight infections.