Researchers recently found that individuals who averaged less than six hours of sleep at night had an almost 50 percent increase in the risk of colorectal adenomas compared with individuals sleeping at least seven hours per night. Adenomas are a precursor to cancer tumors, and left untreated, they can turn malignant.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to report a significant association of sleep duration and colorectal adenomas,” said Li Li, MD, PhD, the study’s principal investigator. “A short amount of sleep can now be viewed as a new risk factor for the development of the development of colon cancer.”

Read more:  http://www.endonurse.com/news/2011/02/a-new-risk-factor-found-for-colon-cancer-lack-of-sleep.aspx