A lack of sleep can accelerate ageing among older adults

Margaret Jennings talks to an expert about how we can get enough shut-eye every night and hold back the years.

MAGGIE Thatcher famously survived on four hours of sleep a night. And although she may have become British prime minister at the age of 54 and held the position for 11 years with such limited shut-eye, she is far from the norm.

In fact three years ago research suggested that she may have had a special gene that predisposed her to staying alert 20 hours a day. Scientists at the Centre for Applied