Get more sleep and you’ll live longer, middle aged are told

MIDDLE-AGED people are to be urged to get more sleep to help them live longer.

Public Health England is preparing to unveil a major marketing campaign to persuade those aged between 40 and 60 to make seven lifestyle changes.

As well as taking more exercise and stopping smoking, the over-40s will be told to focus on getting enough sleep each night.

The other four crucial changes are cutting down on alcohol, improving diet, reducing stress, and checking for common signs and symptoms of disease.

The quango will use posters, advertisements and social media to ensure those in mid-life get the message about the seven vital changes they can make.

‘ By making these seven changes they vastly improve chances of a longer, more active and fulfilled life,’ it will say.

The focus on getting proper rest research that lack of sleep is linked to obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Doctors are increasingly concerned that the growing use of mobiles and laptops in bed, as well as a rise in shift work, is having an effect on the nation’s sleeping habits.

Adrian Williams, professor of sleep medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS trust, warned that there was growing evidence that lack of sleep was leading to health problems.

‘People don’t sleep enough in general and the amount of sleep that we are getting has reduced over the years,’ he said.

Last month, a study found that struggling to get to sleep could mean you are up to four times more likely to suffer a stroke.

Those with persistent sleep disorders also have more than twice the risk of suffering a heart attack. The findings led to calls for doctors to start considering sleep disorders a major risk factor for heart problems, alongside smoking, lack of exercise and a poor diet.

Lily Makurah, national programme manager for public mental health at PHE, said: ‘Sleep is one of many things that adults can try to improve for

‘Neglected age group’

better physical and mental wellbeing, alongside things like taking exercise, drinking less or stopping smoking.’

PHE said it was important that those over the age of 40 get away from the idea that physical and cognitive decline is ‘inevitable’.

In fact, it says, changes to one’s lifestyle can have a significant impact. But, all too often, this age group is ‘neglected’ in terms of public health campaigns.

News of its latest strategy comes after an Age UK report warned that middle-class people over the age of 50 have become a generation of problem drinkers.

Those who have done well in their careers and enjoy good health are the most likely to drink to harmful levels – with adults aged 45 to 64 more likely to have been drinking than other age groups.

Information about the new campaign was revealed in a report last week, entitled, ‘Social marketing strategy 2014 to 2017: one year on’.

It says: ‘In the next two years, we will seek to implement a major programme to energise and engage adults in making changes to improve their own health.

‘Physical and cognitive decline are not inevitable, indeed only around 20 to 30 per cent of what we think of as “ageing” is biological; the rest is “decay” or “deterioration”, which can be actively managed or prevented.’