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One study found that a sleep deprivation could damage the DNA and the body's ability to repair it, resulting in an increased risk of genetic diseases such as cancer.
Research from the University of Hong Kong, which examined the effects of sleep deprivation on local doctors, revealed that those who had to work at night were working more and more their damage to the DNA, as well as the genetic activity badociated with the repair of the DNA.
The study was one of the first to examine such effects on humans, especially among young adults.
"This is a very preliminary study, but [there is] an indication that sleep disturbances are neither good nor for your genes, "said Dr. Gordon Wong Tin-chun, co-author of the study and an badociate professor at HKU's Department of Anesthesiology.
<! – DNA damage is a change in the basic structure of genetic instructions for cell growth and functions in organisms. This change is not repaired when the molecule is replicated.
Wong said that DNA damage and a lower repair capacity could have more significant health consequences.
"[Such conditions] increase the risk of developing diseases due to genetic mutations such as cancer, "he said.
Wong said the study results could also apply to people whose working conditions were similar to those of doctors who performed irregular night shifts.
The results were recently published in the medical journal Anesthesia.
READ ALSO: Singaporeans fail to get enough sleep, study finds
The researchers examined 49 healthy and full-time doctors from two local public hospitals. Of these, 24 had to work on calls during the night, most of them having to take between five and six calls of this type per month. A call on the site overnight means that a doctor must work the next morning in the late afternoon.
The remaining 25 physicians in the study were not required to take such calls.
Blood samples were collected from all participants after 3 days of adequate sleep. Extra blood was taken from those who had to work all night. The blood of these respondents was taken the next morning after sleep deprivation.
The researchers found that, among general practitioners, DNA cuts, a type of DNA damage, were 30% more frequent than those performed at regular hours.
This damage to DNA was further increased by more than 25% after a night of acute sleep deprivation. It was also found that physicians whose sleep was inadequate had lower levels of genetic activity badociated with the repair of DNA.
<! – But the mechanism on why insufficient sleep could result in such damage remained obscure in the study.
Wong said they hoped to increase public awareness of the importance of sleep.
"Perhaps you should consider looking in your [sleep habits] and treat sleep with a little more respect, "he said.
The recommended sleeping hours for people vary by age group. An adult aged 18 to 60 would need at least seven hours of sleep a night, according to the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Professor Michael Irwin, head of the Department of Anesthesiology at HKU and editor of the journal, said the consequences of sleep deprivation were not only physical, but psychological, and that they could also affect the judgment.
"For doctors who work at night and who are dealing with very technical issues such as anesthesia or surgery, we really have to try to minimize the number of procedures performed overnight," said Irwin.
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.
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