Hitting The Town? This News Might Convince You To Have An Early Night

It's been a long week and we're all dying to get out of the office and have a bit of craic. However, this latest news has made us think twice about hitting the town and made us a lot more likely to hit the hay instead! A survey carried out by UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology in Los Angeles has found that just one night of disturbed sleep can trigger the ageing process. Twenty-nine people took part in the research and underwent partial sleep deprivation over four nights, followed by a series of blood tests to assess peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression. According to Mail Online, this type of blood cell plays a key role in the immune system's ability to fight infection and the results showed that just one night of partial sleep deprivation activates gene expression patterns that could stop or disrupt the cycle of the cell.

Biological ageing is described as the rate at which cells and organs deteriorate and our bodies lose certain functions so by damaging cells, a lack of sleep can cause this deterioration, and ageing, to occur much faster than it would normally.

Early night, anyone?