Research shows that good sleep habits can have a significant impact on heart health, overall well-being, and even life expectancy.
It is revealed that young people with better sleep patterns are less likely to experience premature death. The data suggests that poor sleep patterns may be responsible for up to 8% of deaths from any cause.
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Sleep quality is not just about the number of hours
According to Co-author Frank Qian, MD (clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School), he and his team saw an evident dose-response relationship. Higher quality of sleep relates to a stepwise lower risk of death of any cause, including cardiovascular mortality.
Qian added that simply getting enough hours every night is not enough; it's about sleep quality. "You really have to have a restful sleep and not have much trouble falling and staying asleep."
Further reading: A good night's sleep starts during the day - 10 simple tips to improve sleep quality - (Universal-Sci)
The study
For their groundbreaking research, the team used data from the National Health Interview Survey to examine the impact of various sleep behaviors on life expectancy.
The survey, which aims to evaluate the health of the American population, involved 172,321 participants with an average age of 50, of whom 54% were women. This is the first study to use a nationally representative sample to investigate how multiple sleep behaviors beyond sleep duration can affect life expectancy.
One of the study's strengths lies in the researchers' ability to link the participants' data to the National Death Index records. This allowed them to investigate the correlation between individual and combined sleep factors and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. During the median follow-up period of 4.3 years, 8,681 individuals died, with 2,610 (30%) of these deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease, 2,052 (24%) to cancer, and 4,019 (46%) to other causes.
The quality of participants' sleep was evaluated based on five distinct factors using a low-risk sleep score developed from the survey responses.
The most important elements for quality of sleep were as follows:
Ideal sleep duration of 7 to 8 hours per night
Difficulty falling asleep no more than twice a week
Experiencing trouble staying asleep no more than twice a week
Not using any sleep medication
Feeling well-rested after waking up at least five days a week.
Each of these factors was assigned either a score of zero or one, with a maximum possible score of five, indicating the highest quality of sleep.
According to Qian, individuals who exhibit all of these ideal sleep behaviors are more likely to have a longer lifespan. Therefore, by improving overall sleep quality, particularly by identifying and treating sleep disorders, it may be possible to prevent some instances of premature death.
To account for other factors that could increase the risk of mortality, such as lower socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol consumption, and other medical conditions, researchers controlled for these variables in their analysis.
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In comparison to those with zero to one favorable sleep factors, individuals who exhibited all five were 30% less likely to die from any cause, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 19% less likely to die from cancer, and 40% less likely to die from causes other than heart disease or cancer. Qian suggests that these other causes of death may be attributed to accidents, infections, or neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's disease, although further research is necessary to confirm this hypothesis.
Longer life expectancy with a better sleep score
The results of the study show that individuals who reported having all five ideal sleep behaviors had a higher life expectancy.
Men with a perfect score had a life expectancy that was 4.7 years greater than those who had none or only one of the five favorable elements, while women had a life expectancy that was 2.4 years greater under the same conditions.
Further research is needed to determine the reason behind the difference in life expectancy between men and women with all five low-risk sleep factors.
Start working on sleep quality as early as possible
According to Qian, good sleep habits, such as getting enough sleep, minimizing distractions while sleeping, and practicing good sleep hygiene, can greatly benefit an individual's overall long-term health, even from a young age.
The current analysis focused on estimating gains in life expectancy starting at age 30, but the model has the potential to be used for predicting gains at older ages as well.
Qian: “It’s important for younger people to understand that a lot of health behaviors are cumulative over time. Just like we like to say, ‘it’s never too late to exercise or stop smoking,’ it’s also never too early. And we should be talking about and assessing sleep more often.”
The study is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, those interested in more details can find it listed below this article.
Sources and further reading:
A good night's sleep starts during the day - 10 simple tips to improve sleep quality - (Universal-Sci)
Why listening to music close to bedtime is a bad idea (Universal-Sci)
The way you sleep could predict the onset of Alzheimer's Disease - (Universal-Sci)
Daylight saving time vs. standard time, which is better for our sleep? (Universal-Sci)
Low-risk Sleep Patterns, Mortality, and Life Expectancy at Age 30 Years: A Prospective Study of 172,321 U.S. Adults (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)
Frank Qian, M.D. (Harvard Catalyst)
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