Less than eight hours of sleep ‘linked with greater risk of mental health issues’

People who regularly fail to get the recommended amount of sleep are at a greater risk of developing mental health problems.

This is according to a new study from Binghamton University, which has indicated that sleeping less than eight hours a night is associated with intrusive, repetitive thoughts similar to those linked to anxiety and depression.

Specifically, subjects involved in the study who experienced regular sleep disruptions were shown to have difficulty shifting their attention away from negative information, making them vulnerable to psychological disorders.

If this association can be demonstrated more conclusively, it could potentially allow psychologists to treat anxiety and depression by encouraging patients to shift their sleep cycles to a healthier time, or taking steps to improve the quality of their sleep.

Meredith Coles, professor of psychology at Binghamton University, said: "We found that people in this study have some tendencies to have thoughts get stuck in their heads, and their elevated negative thinking makes it difficult for them to disengage with the negative stimuli that we exposed them to."

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