Men who suffer from insomnia or sleep for short periods of time are at risk of an early death, a new study suggests.

The study, reported in the September 1 issue of the journal Sleep, found that men who had serious sleep problems were much more likely to die over a 14 year period.

No major link between insomnia and mortality rates was found in women but women in the study were only followed for 10 years compared to 14 and were younger, with an average age of 47 at the start of the study compared to the average male age of 50.

For years researchers have found a link between sleep deprivation and obesity and a new study has found that sleeping less may make you eat more.

Much of the previous research has looked at people with a high BMI (body mass index) but French researchers have found that shortened sleep gives normal-weight men the munchies too.

In fact, cutting their sleep time from eight hours a night to four hours resulted in the participants wolfing down a Big Mac’s worth of extra calories during the day.

Retirement can help you sleep easier, particularly if you retire early with generous pension payments.

Researchers at the Univeristy of Turku in Finland studied 14,714 people who had retired from the French national gas and electric company; 79% were men and only 4% retired due to health reasons.

Their average retirement age was 55.

The research, published in the journal Sleep, followed the workers for seven years before they retired and seven years afterwards to examine what effect retirement had on sleep patterns.

Many professionals and business people complain of there not being enough hours in the day, but economising on sleep may end up costing you a lot more in the long run.

A new University of Chicago study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, suggests that poor sleeping patterns is a diabetes risk factor alongside lack of exercise and unhealthy Western diets, reports WebMD.

Chicago researchers have discovered that a lack of sleep means you’re much more likely to develop high blood pressure, particularly if you’re middle aged.

According to the study, missing one hour of sleep (on average) over five years will raise your risk of high blood pressure by 37%.

"People who didn't sleep as much were at greater risk of developing hypertension over five years," said University of Chicago researcher Kristen Knutson in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A new and experimental drug called tasimelteon which mimics the hormone melatonin may curb the sleep deprivation effects of jet lag.

The drug studies were jointly undertaken by scientists from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston and Monash University, Australia. The news was first reported in the British journal The Lancet.

Tasimelteon is a drug in development that works on the pineal gland, while another similar drug called Rozerem is already approved to treat insomnia by the FDA.