Lack of sleep is something common nowadays. Whether it’s just a movie on our laptop or catching up on things for the next day, insomnia or a party, we lose good hours of sleep, increasing our risks for various health problems. Research has shown that sleep deprivation leads to a serious of conditions such as obesity, coronary artery disease, diabetes, poor memory, high blood pressure, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking and even mortality.

Now a new study led by James McClain of the National Cancer Institute says that practicing regular physical activity can significantly reduce the risk of cancer among women, but there’s a catch. They must also get the right amount of sleep on regular basis. What does that mean? Well, the National Sleep Foundation, a Washington-based organization that studies sleep and sleep disorders, recommends at least seven hours a night for adults and between 8 and 12 hours of sleep for children and adolescents.

For the study, which was presented at a conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, McClain followed 5,968 women in Maryland, aged 18 and over, for about 10 years.

Women who were the most active were found to have a sharply reduced risk of cancer, about 25 percent less, compared to those who were the least active.

However, McClain and colleagues discovered something else when they examined the sleep pattern of women participating in the study. Cancer was 47 percent rarer for women who got at least seven hours of nightly sleep and got about an hour a day of moderate physical exercise.

“We think it’s quite interesting and intriguing. It’s kid of a first look into this. It isn’t something that has been widely studied,” said McClain.

Previous studies have not been able to clarify why exactly exercise reduced the risk of cancer, but researchers believe that this is due to body weight and hormone levels and immunological disorders associated with physical activity. More exactly, the relationship between sleep and cancer may be in the hormone melatonin, produced by the brain during sleep to regulate the body’s internal clock. Melatonin would have a major role in the prevention of breast cancer by controlling the quantities of sex hormones that are released.

Therefore, it is recommendable that you have the same hour of going to sleep, avoid exercise around sleep time, avoid eating too much around that hour, but, at the same time, you should not go to bed hungry. Also avoid caffeinated beverages or alcohol when you go to bed. Leave your worries at the bedroom’s door is another piece of advice you can take. They might cause hours of insomnia, research shows. Find every way possible to improve your sleep, as good sleep means good health.