It could make you thinner. The less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be. Research showed that people who sleep five hours a night were found to have 15 percent more ghrelin ( a hormone that boosts hunger ) in their bodies and 15 percent less
leptin ( which suppresses it ) than those sleeping eight hours.

It could boost your memory.Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain. A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements such as a piano scaled recalled them better after 12 hours' sleep than 12 hours wakefulness.

It can fight colds, ulcers and cancers. Good sleep boosts the immune system. Melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers may have up to 70-times greater risk of breast cancer. Also the checmical to repair damage to the stomach lining is secreted during sleep, so staying up all night regularly could raise your risk of ulcers.

It can slow down ageing. Persistent sleep debt affects carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way to increase the severity af age-related chronic disorders. A large-scale study concluded that people who sleep six to seven hours a night lived longer than those sleeping than 4.5 hours

It could keep you orderly.If youre a child, that is. The depression and low self esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. Young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take drink and drugs in adolescence.

The vaccine Gardasil (Merck), for girls and women 11 to 26, prevent infection from four strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) , the main cause of cervical cancer.

Anyone who's had chickenpox is susceptible to the painful disease shingles. The Zostavax vaccine (Merck) is recommwended for people over the age of 60, who are at greater risk.

The vaccine we get as babaies wears off after about 7 years, so we now have Sanofi's Pasteur's Adacel ( for ages 11 to 64 ) and GlaxoSmithKline's Boostrix (for those ages 10 to 18).

Zolinza (Merck), a new medicine for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, is also being studied for other types of cancer.

Januvia (Merck), a once-daily pill for type 2 diabetes, is the first of a new class of medicines thant enhance the body's ability t control blood sugar. With Exubera (Pfizer), a fast acting needle free insulin, diabetics simply puff on the asthma-type inhaler before eating to deliver insulin quickly, regulating blood sugar.

One pill, three impressive jobs: the beta blocker Coreg CR (GlaxoSmithKline) reduces blood pressure and treats heart failure as well as post heart attack.

In trials, 44% of smokers who took prescription Chantix (Pfizer) for three months kicked the habit, versus 30% who used other drugs and 18% on a placebo.