Heidelberg - Sleeping uninterruptedly through the night is considered healthy. But a new study shows that multiple nightly visits to the bathroom can help keep a person healthy.

Researchers in the United States have discovered noticeably reduced risks of bladder cancer among people who have a strong need to urinate during the night.

People who go to the bathroom at least twice nightly reduce their risk of cancer risk by around 40 per cent for men and around 50 per cent for women and were more marked among smokers than non-smokers.

The study was conducted on 884 bladder cancer sufferers and 996 without the cancer by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and has been published in the International Journal of Cancer (Volume 123 [7]), according to the German Cancer Research Centre.

According to the German cancer centre, the US researchers believe that the cancer risk increases when the bladder is exposed to cancer- causing agents in the urine for a prolonged period.

But multiple trips to the bathroom during the daytime have no effect on the risk of contracting bladder cancer, they found.