Losing sleep: Stress robs us of 64 nights of a sleep a year.

ADULTS lose 64 nights’ worth of sleep every year, usually due to stress, a study has found.

The average grown-up gets just six hours and 36 minutes’ sleep every night – an hour and 24 minutes less than the recommended eight hours.

This amounts to 511 hours over a year – the equivalent of almost 64 eight-hour nights, Stress is the main reason for insomnia, the poll found.

A snoring or fidgeting partner, being too hot or cold in bed and worrying about money can also cause sleeplessness.

Using technology late at night, having young children and lying in an uncomfortable bed are among the other reasons people cannot nod off.

Sixty eight per cent of adults do not believe they get enough sleep, with one in twenty claiming to get a maximum of four hours’ shut-eye a night.

Britons’ productivity is affected two days a week due to a lack of sleep, the survey of 1,000 people by MatalanDirect. com found.

A spokesman said: “A good night’s sleep is something we all require as a matter of health, but it seems like it’s something many of us struggle to get.

“Experts recommend we get around eight hours a night, but in actual fact the average adult is getting just six-and-a-half hours.

He warned: “Age UK states a lack of sleep over a long period can be associated with Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and strokes. Make sure you can switch off at night.”