Prostate Cancer Risk Higher in Those With Sleep Problems

Men who frequently have problems falling asleep and staying asleep have an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to recent data.

"Sleep problems are very common in modern society and can have adverse health consequences," said Lara G. Sigurdardóttir, M.D., at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, according to Science Daily. "Women with sleep disruption have consistently been reported to be at an increased risk for breast cancer, but less is known about the potential role of sleep problems in prostate cancer."

Previous studies have shown that conflicts often result for an association between sleep disruption from working night shifts and the risk for prostate cancer. Researchers are investigating the role of sleep in influencing prostate cancer risk.

The researchers followed 2,102 men from the prospective Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik study, which involved an established, population-based cohort of 2,425 men aged 67 to 96. Upon enrollment into the study, the participants answered four questions about sleep disruption: whether they took medications to sleep, had trouble falling asleep, woke up during nights with difficulty going back to sleep or woke up early in the morning with difficulty going back to sleep.

Approximately 8.7 percent and 5.7 percent of participants reported severe and very severe sleep problems. Though none of them had prostate cancer during the beginning of the study, the researchers followed them for a five-year period to find that 6.4 percent were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The study showed that there was a three-fold risk increase for cancer with reported severity of problems falling and staying asleep.

However, researchers still note that further studies need to be conducted to provide more

According to Sigurdardóttir, these data should be confirmed with a larger cohort with longer observation times. "Prostate cancer is one of the leading public health concerns for men and sleep problems are quite common," she said. "If our results are confirmed with further studies, sleep may become a potential target for intervention to reduce the risk for prostate cancer."