Brushing your teeth may help you to sleep better

HAVING good dental hygiene could prevent insomnia, suggest researchers at Tohoku University in Japan.

They found pensioners with fewer than ten teeth often do not manage seven hours’ sleep a night, with some having less than four. The researchers, writing in the journal Sleep Medicine, said that the missing teeth affect how the tongue lies in the mouth.

This may lead to obstructive sleep apnoea — when the walls of the throat collapse during sleep, interrupting breathing and causing the patient to wake.