Good sleep is healthy – and can lead to longer life, according to a new study. Men in particular can get up to five additional years of good sleep quality. But what makes good sleep? In addition to the duration, other factors are also important, according to the researchers.
Everyone knows the consequences of a restless night: lack of sleep affects mood, alertness and memory. Chronic poor sleep can also put your health at risk. And sleep quality even affects how long you live, according to a new study. For men, good sleep can mean almost five additional years of life.
“When people get ideal sleep, they are more likely to live longer,” said study co-author Frank Qian, a resident of internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, according to a statement. As a result, “If we can improve sleep overall, for which detecting sleep disorders is particularly important, we may be able to partially prevent premature mortality.”
According to the study, good sleep has a significant impact on life expectancy, especially in men: Those with the best sleep quality lived 4.7 years longer than those with the worst. For women, the difference was 2.4 years. The scientists emphasized that more research is needed to explain this clear difference. The results of the study are scheduled to be presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the World Heart Federation (WHF) in early March.
But what constitutes good sleep quality? It’s not enough just to get enough sleep each night, Qian points out. “You really need to get a restful night’s sleep and not have a lot of trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.”
The researchers defined the following factors for healthy sleep in their study:
According to the researchers, if all of these factors are fully met, this can prolong life. “We found a clear dose-response relationship,” said Qian. The better the quality of sleep, the greater the drop in mortality.
According to the study, people with the best sleep quality were more likely than those with very poor sleep quality
The study evaluated the data of more than 170,000 subjects who took part in the annual national health survey in the USA between 2013 and 2018. The average age was 50 years. On average, the participants were followed for a little over four years. They were also asked about their sleeping habits. More than 8,000 people died during the study period – the researchers were therefore able to look for connections between death and sleep quality.
According to the researchers, they also considered other possible factors for an increased risk of death. These included, for example, lower socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol consumption and other diseases. However, the researchers also point out the limitations of their study: The sleep quality was assessed by the subjects themselves and not determined objectively. The researchers also didn’t know if sleeping pills or medications played a role in sleep quality.
The German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM) repeatedly warns that chronic lack of sleep results in an increased risk of physical illnesses – especially cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders and an increased risk of dementia in the brain older age. Poor sleep also increases the risk of accidents at work or on the road. According to the DGSM, around ten percent of people in Germany suffer from problems falling asleep and sleeping through the night that require treatment.
