Why you should NEVER hit the snooze button on your alarm clock

• News & Highlights

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night is linked to suicide and numerous health conditions, including Alzheimer’s, anxiety, depression, stroke and chronic pain — and to damage to every physiological system of the body, leading to cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, infertility and obesity.

Meanwhile proper sleep is beneficial for us in myriad ways, nurturing our memory and learning and boosting our immune defences, physical fitness and mental health.

In fact, sleep is the single most effective thing we can do for our health, wealth and well-being — even before diet or exercise.

Based on 20 years of research and findings from more than 100 papers produced in my sleep lab, here Professor Matthew Walker explains why we neglect sleep at our peril and how we can sleep better.