A new study has found that following five good sleep habits can add nearly five years to a man’s life expectancy and almost 2.5 years to a woman’s life. The study analyzed data from over 172,000 people who answered sleep questionnaires between 2013 and 2018 as part of the National Health Interview Survey. Each of the five healthy sleep habits – falling asleep easily, staying asleep, getting seven to eight hours of sleep, waking up rested, and foregoing sleep medication – was assigned a number, and people were scored on how many of the five habits they had. Compared to individuals who had zero to one favorable sleep factors, those who had all five were 30% less likely to die for any reason, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 19% less likely to die from cancer, and 40% less likely to die of causes other than heart disease or cancer.
Men who followed all five of the healthy sleep habits had a life expectancy that was 4.7 years greater than people who had none or only one of the five elements of low-risk sleep. The impact of healthy sleep habits was much lower for women: those who followed all five sleep habits gained 2.4 years compared with those who did none or only one.
One potential reason for the gender difference could be the difficulty of evaluating women for obstructive sleep apnea, a potentially deadly condition in which breathing stops every few minutes. The more severe the apnea, the greater the risk of coronary artery disease, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes. “Women with obstructive sleep apnea often get underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed because they may not present with the classic symptoms that we see when we’re evaluating men,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
The study suggests that encouraging the maintenance of regular sleep schedules with consistent sleep durations may be an important part of lifestyle recommendations for the prevention of heart disease. “Recent studies have shown irregularity in sleep timing and duration have been linked to metabolic abnormalities and higher cardiovascular disease risk,” said Dasgupta.
To achieve better sleep, individuals need to make sure they get a full seven to eight hours of sleep each night. They also need to have uninterrupted, restful sleep more often than not. That means not waking up during the night or having trouble falling asleep more than two times a week. People also need to feel well-rested at least five days a week when they wake up, and they can’t be using sleep medications to achieve their slumber. It’s important to go to bed at the same time on most nights and get up at the same time most mornings, even on weekends and holidays. Set up a sleep routine, with no blue lights or distractions at least an hour before bedtime. Parents and caregivers can learn these habits and teach them to their children, providing them with a better shot at a longer life, the study said.
“If people have all these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer,” said Dr. Frank Qian, a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School and internal medicine resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “If we can improve sleep overall, and identifying sleep disorders is especially important, we may be able to prevent some of this premature mortality,” Qian said.
To learn more on this topic, I recommend you start with this article from the American College of Cardiology.