They also exercised more, smoked less, woke up earlier, slept less and drank more coffee than the non-leaders.

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"People who slept less than seven hours were about three times more likely to get a cold than people who slept eight hours or more a night, " said Sheldon Cohen, psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, in a podcast.

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It has even been suggested that the link may hark back to prehistoric times, when humans stored up on fat during the summer months when food was plentiful and they slept less as a result of the shorter nights.

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And the amazing thing was that they slept about 30 minutes less per night than people whose managers were more open and creative.

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They smoked more, drank more caffeinated drinks, slept more fitfully, and exercised less.

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"If you have slept, you use a means of navigation that is less thoughtful, " Mr Orban told the BBC News website.

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The study, which included 8, 550 4-year-olds from around the United States, found that children who ate dinner with their families more than five times a week, slept for at least 10.5 hours a night, and watched less than two hours of TV a day were 40 percent less likely to be obese than children who did none of those things.

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