• Question: Is it true that people who sleep less than six hours a night are more likely to develop colon cancer than those who sleep more? and is colon cancer common? what is the most common form of cancer? and what are people doing to prevent cancer?

    Asked by u11bradshawt to Debbie, Glyn, Jon, Kat, Nicola on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Glyn Barrett

      Glyn Barrett answered on 18 Mar 2013:


      Hi U11bradshawt!

      There are indeed a number of recent studies which have associated lack of sleep with colon cancer development! You are keeping up with the scientific news!
      Lack of sleep has already been linked to conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes and these may be related to increase risk in colon cancer.
      It is thought that if you sleep less your body produces less melatonin which is a natural hormone produced by humans and most other animals. Melatonin repairs DNA so if you produce less of it your body won’t be able to repair itself or fight the cancer.
      Cancer affects most parts of the body and I think there are over 200 different types but the most common are breast, lung, colon and prostate which make up nearly 60% of all cases.

      Lots of scientists around the world are working really hard to solve the mysteries and prevent cancer. From the looks of it Kat is getting on pretty well. Good luck to her!!

    • Photo: Jonathan Stone

      Jonathan Stone answered on 18 Mar 2013:


      Good question…I will be interested to see what @kat or someone says…

    • Photo: Nicola Fletcher

      Nicola Fletcher answered on 18 Mar 2013:


      I didn’t know that – that’s really interesting!

    • Photo: Kathryn McMahon

      Kathryn McMahon answered on 18 Mar 2013:


      I have to say, this isn’t an area I work on! This is the sort of thing epidemiologists do. These are scientists that look at information from thousands of patients (like age, eating habits, do they smoke, what diseases they have), do lots of complicated maths that I couldn’t hope to understand, and come up with information like this. So in this instance, they asked doctors to get their patients to fill in a questionaire asking them about their eating habits, sleep patterns, weight , smoking etc. All of the patients had come to the doctor because they were concerned or having tests for bowel cancer. They then looked at all the information they got and found that people who got less than 6 hours sleep had an increased risk of bowel cancer.
      You have to be careful with studies like this as there may be other reasons for the link that you see – for example, if you are worried that you may have cancer, this may effect your sleep and therefore the results. However, this study seemed pretty decent, so I think what they say is true. As Glyn says, this may be because the body needs to repair and recover when you’re asleep.
      The biggest killer in terms of cancer is lung cancer. Along with bowel cancer, its the most common and its pretty hard to cure. If you can catch the cancer early, bowel cancer cancer can be cured, but sadly, people often don’t realise they have it until its spread. Breast cancer is also common, but actually, most people with breast cancer will survive it (with treatment).
      In terms of preventing cancer, the government are trying to get people to do some basic things like improve their diet, stop smoking and stop sun bathing. They are also vaccinating girls to protect them from the Human papilloma virus which can cause cervical cancer in women.

      Cancer Research UK has loads of great info on this, check out:
      http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/incidence/commoncancers/uk-cancer-incidence-statistics-for-common-cancers
      http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/healthyliving/
      http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/causes/comparing-causes-of-cancer/visualisationoftheresults/#Data

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