Morning Persons Get Lower Chances of Breast Cancer

Morning person
Morning person (photo: pexels)
By M. GraceNovember 7th, 2018

New research suggested that women who wake up early and begin their day early get lower chances of breast cancer.

The research conducted by the Cancer Research UK was presented at the 3-day event, 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference in Glasgow from November 4 to 6.

The study also found out that women who begin their day earlier reduce their breast cancer risk by up to 40 percent compared to women who prefer the late day.

Additionally, women who slept longer than the recommended seven to eight hours have a percent increased risk of breast cancer per additional hour slept.

"The findings of a protective effect of morning preference on breast cancer risk in this study are consistent with previous research highlighting a role for night shift work and exposure to 'light-at-night' as risk factors for breast cancer," said Rebecca Richmond, a research student in the Cancer Research UK.

"We know already that night shift work is associated with worse mental and physical health. This study provides further evidence to suggest disrupted sleep patterns may have a role in cancer development," she added.

For the research, the team looked at data from 180,215 women and 228,951 women part of a genome-wide association study of breast cancer. The team used genetic variants for people's reference for evening or morning, insomnia and sleep duration. They have investigated whether sleep traits have a contribution to the risk of developing the disease.

"We would like to do further work to investigate the mechanisms underpinning these results, as the estimates obtained are based on questions related to morning or evening preference rather than actually whether people get up earlier or later in the day. In other words, it may not be the case that changing your habits changes your risk of breast cancer; it may be more complex than that," Richmond noted.

She also believed that their findings will help policy-makers and employers for influencing the sleep habits of the people to improve health and reduce breast cancer among women. 

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