Lack of sleep can increase your chances of developing deadly lung diseases.

A BAD night’s sleep can mean more than a grouchy morning of yawning afterwards.

Scientists now believe that if you are unable to obtain regular decent kip, your chances of getting asthma diagnosis could be doubled.

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One major UK Biobank study has found that healthy sleep patterns could reduce your risk of getting the common lung condition. It was published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research.

Asthma can be a serious problem for the lungs and usually starts as a child.

While it’s manageable day-to-day with inhalers, sufferers can experience complications, and there is a risk of severe, life-threatening asthma attacks.

Biobank’s study sought to determine if poor or infrequent sleep, as people suffering from asthma frequently report, can have an effect on asthma risk. It also examined whether high quality sleep could reduce asthma risk.

The healthy sleeping patterns were seven to nine hours per night, with no or rare instances of insomnia. It also meant feeling awake throughout the day, and not having to take a nap.

Over 450,000 adult 38-73 year olds were surveyed by the researchers over nine years.

It was possible to track your respiratory health up until the time you were diagnosed with asthma, until the participant dies, or even till 31 March 2017, depending on which of these events occurred first.

The overall result was that participants with high asthma genetic risk were 47% more likely to develop the disease, while those who were not well-rested were only 55% more likely.

The study authors wrote: “Considering that poor sleep combined with high genetic susceptibility yielded a greater than twofold asthma risk, sleep patterns could be recommended as an effective lifestyle intervention to prevent future asthma, especially for individuals with high-risk genetics.”

The researchers accept that this was an observational study, and as a result, they can’t establish cause, which does limit the findings.