According to a study, good sleep can help support the heart and overall health, and may even contribute to how long we live. The study found that young people with better sleep patterns were less likely to die prematurely.
The results also show that about 8% of all deaths are due to poor sleep habits.
The researchers observed a clear dose-response relationship, such that a person’s number of cardiovascular and all-cause deaths gradually decreases the more positive factors they have in terms of better sleep quality.
For their analysis, researchers included data from 172,321 people with an average age of 50 who participated in a survey conducted each year by the National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC to assess population health and questions about sleep and sleep patterns. The study examined how different sleep behaviors, not just sleep duration, might affect life expectancy using a nationally representative population.
Because participants could be linked to National Death Index records, the association between individual and composite sleep factors and cause-specific and all-cause death could be examined. The people were monitored for an average of 4.3 years until 8,681 of them died.
Of these deaths, 2,052 were due to cancer, 2,610 were deaths related to cardiovascular disease and 4,019 deaths were due to other causes.
The researchers assessed five different sleep quality factors using a low-risk sleep score that they developed based on survey responses.
The factors include:
- 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night is ideal
- Difficulty falling asleep no more than twice a week
- Difficulty sleeping through the night a maximum of twice a week
- Do not take sleeping pills
- Feel well-rested after sleeping at least 5 days per week.
A score of 0 or 1 point was assigned for each factor, with 5 points indicating the highest sleep quality.
When individuals have each of these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer. So if overall sleep can be improved and sleep disorders can be identified, some of these early deaths could potentially be prevented.
The analysis took into account other factors that could have increased the risk of death, such as other medical conditions, alcohol and smoking consumption, and lower socioeconomic status.
Compared to people who had 0 to 1 favorable sleep factors; People with all 5 were 30% less likely to die from any cause, 19% less likely to die from cancer, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, and a 40% less likely to die from causes other than cancer or heart disease. .
These other causes of death are likely due to neurodegenerative diseases, infections or accidents, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
For women and men who reported having all five sleep quality criteria, life expectancy was 2.4 years higher for women and 4.7 years higher for men compared to people who had none or only one of the five sleep quality factors had low risk.
More research is needed to find out why men who had all five low-risk sleep factors had twice the life expectancy of women with identical sleep quality.
If these good sleep patterns can be developed from a young age and ensure overall good sleep hygiene and sleep with few distractions, overall long-term health can be significantly improved.
For the study, researchers estimated increases in life expectancy starting at age 30, but the model could also be used to predict increases in other age groups. Younger people need to understand that many health behaviors accumulate over time.
Image by Claudio_Scott from Pixabay