Men who have problems falling asleep and staying asleep may have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

Over 3,000 men are newly diagnosed with cancer of the prostate every year in Ireland, while 500 men die from the disease annually.

According to scientists from Iceland, sleep problems are ‘very common' nowadays and can have a negative effect on health.

"Women with sleep disruption have consistently been reported to be at an increased risk for breast cancer, but less is known about the potential role of sleep problems in prostate cancer," they explained.

They decided to investigate this issue further. They monitored the progress of over 2,100 men aged between 67 and 96. At the beginning of the study, none of the men had prostate cancer and all were asked four questions about sleep:

-Did they take medication to help with sleep?
-Had they trouble falling asleep?
-Did they wake up during the night and find it difficult to go back asleep?
-Did they wake up early in the morning and find it difficult to go back asleep?

The scientists found that almost 9% of the men had severe sleep problems, while almost 6% had very severe problems.

The men were monitored for five years and during that time, over 6% were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The study found that men were up to two times more likely to go on to develop prostate cancer if they had sleep problems. Furthermore, the more severe the sleep problems, the higher the risk of developing the disease.

The scientists also found that the risk appeared to be stronger when it came to advanced prostate cancer. Those with very severe sleep problems were three times more likely to develop advanced cancer of the prostate compared to people with no sleep problems.

"Prostate cancer is one of the leading public health concerns for men and sleep problems are quite common. If our results are confirmed with further studies, sleep may become a potential target for intervention to reduce the risk for prostate cancer," the team from the University of Iceland said.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.