Another piece of research showed that, if you miss two nights' sleep, changes occur to the immune system, making it more difficult to ward off infection. It is also thought that the weakening of your immune system can make it more difficult to fight off the early stages of cancer. One piece of analysis suggested that the effects are more than marginal. People who sleep little live up to several years less than those who sleep six to eight hours. Tests on rats show that, if you deprive them of sleep for two weeks, equivalent to three months in human terms, they die.
Lack of sleep can kill humans a lot more quickly.
Other public health hazards, such as poor nutrition, smoking, excess alcohol and lack of exercise are the subject of endless research, clinics and government programmes to tackle them. But little research has been done on the subject of sleep. There are few sleep clinics in Britain, and no government strategy. Part of this lack is down to the fact that sleep is seen as private, and doctors normally only see patients who are awake. Much of medicine is dictated by tradition.