Want to extend your life? Then make sleep a priority in your life: A new study found that adhering to five healthy sleep habits added nearly five years to a man’s life expectancy and nearly 2.5 years to a woman’s.
Dr. Frank Qian, a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internal medicine resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and co-author of the study, stated, “If people have all of these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer.”
“If we can improve sleep in general, and especially if we can identify sleep disorders, we may be able to prevent a portion of this premature mortality,” Qian said in a statement.
What do you do? First, ensure that you receive seven to eight hours of sleep per night. This is difficult for many people: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-third of Americans have a sleep deficit.
However, it is not enough to simply remain in bed for longer; you must also regularly enjoy a restful, undisturbed sleep.
This means that you do not experience nighttime awakenings or difficulty falling asleep more than twice per week.
Additionally, you must feel well rested at least five days per week. And lastly, you cannot use sleep aids to fall asleep.
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and a sleep specialist, said, “We’re not just talking about the quality and quantity of sleep, but also the consistency of good sleep every night.” He did not participate in the study.
Recent studies have linked irregular sleep timing and duration to metabolic abnormalities and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, he said.
“Encouraging the maintenance of regular sleep schedules and consistent durations of sleep may be an important component of lifestyle recommendations for the prevention of heart disease.”
A difference between men and women
The preliminary study, which was presented Thursday at an annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, analyzed data from over 172,000 people who completed National Health Interview Survey sleep questionnaires between 2013 and 2018.
The annual survey is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics.
A number was assigned to each of the five healthy sleep habits: falling asleep easily, staying asleep, getting seven to eight hours of sleep, waking up refreshed, and avoiding sleep medications. People were scored based on the number of the five habits they possessed.
About four years later, researchers compared the participants’ sleep scores to the National Death Index to determine whether their sleep habits contributed to an early death from specific diseases or any cause.
The team then accounted for other potential causes of a higher mortality risk, including alcohol consumption, lower socioeconomic status, and preexisting medical conditions.
Those with all five favorable sleep factors had a 30% lower risk of dying from any cause, a 21% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 19% lower risk of dying from cancer, and a 40% lower risk of dying from causes other than heart disease or cancer, according to a study statement.
The study found that men who followed all five healthy sleep habits had a life expectancy that was 4,7 years greater than those who had none or only one of the five low-risk sleep habits.
For women, the effect of healthy sleep habits was significantly lower: Those who followed all five healthy sleep habits gained 2.4 years compared to those who did none or only one.
Dasgupta stated, “That was an intriguing aspect of the study for me, and I hope we can find the answer with additional research.”
He added that the difficulty of evaluating women for obstructive sleep apnea, a potentially fatal condition in which breathing stops every few minutes, could be one possible explanation for this disparity.
The severity of apnea correlates with the likelihood of coronary artery disease, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes.
“Women with obstructive sleep apnea are frequently misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed because they may not exhibit the classic symptoms we observe when evaluating men,” Dasgupta stated.
“Perhaps we need to ask different questions or consider different parameters, or are we missing something?”
Good sleep hygiene
Would your grade be below five? The good news is that you can easily train your brain to sleep better by practicing what is known as “sleep hygiene.”
Even on weekends and holidays, it’s important to go to bed and wake up at the same time on the majority of nights.
Ensure that your sleeping environment is optimal — cooler and darker is preferable — and consider blocking out noise or using a sound machine.
When your liver finishes metabolizing the alcohol at 3 a.m., your body will wake up, experts say, even if it seems like you’re falling asleep more quickly.
Set up a sleep routine at least one hour before bedtime, with no blue lights or distractions. Meditation, yoga, tai chi, and warm baths are all excellent ways to relax.
Qian stated that parents and caregivers can learn these habits and pass them on to their children, thereby increasing their chances of living a longer life.
He stated that people could greatly benefit their overall long-term health by developing good sleep habits from a young age such as getting enough sleep, sleeping without too many distractions, and having good sleep hygiene overall.
He also pointed out that it was never too early to exercise or quit smoking, just as it was never too late, and emphasized the need to discuss and evaluate sleep more frequently.
