Scientists have found that people who regularly sleep more than 11 hours or less than 4 hours suffer from pulmonary fibrosis 2-3 times more often than those who sleep 7-8 hours a day. An article about this is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences..

Fibrosis is the proliferation of connective tissue with the appearance of cicatricial changes.. As a rule, this pathology is the result of a prolonged inflammatory process.. Fibrosis leads to a gradual loss of function of the affected organ: for example, with pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary failure.

The main causes of fibrosis are the toxic effects of drugs, injuries, radiation and the infectious process.. However, the authors of a new study believe that the development of pulmonary fibrosis can be affected by a malfunction of the body’s biological clock.. The relationship between abnormal duration of sleep and pulmonary fibrosis is similar in strength to other known risk factors for this disease..

“Pulmonary fibrosis is an extremely destructive condition that is currently incurable,” says one of the study's authors, John Blakely of the University of Manchester.. “Therefore, the discovery of the fact that the biological clock plays a key role [in the development of this pathology] opens up new ways to treat and prevent this condition.”.

According to scientists, further investigation of the relationship between fibrosis and duration of sleep is needed to establish the most accurate reasons for the development of pathology..