Sleep 101: do NOT Stint on ZZZZZZZZs

"I think these findings emphasize that just getting enough hours of sleep isn't sufficient, you really have to have restful sleep and not have much trouble falling and staying asleep."

"It's never too late to exercise or stop smoking, it's also never too early."

"Even from a young age, if people can develop these good sleep habits of getting enough sleep, making sure they are sleeping without too many distractions and have good sleep hygiene overall, it can greatly benefit their overall long-term health."

“So, if we can improve sleep overall, and identifying sleep disorders is especially important, we may be able to prevent some of this premature mortality."

"And we should be talking about and assessing sleep more often."

Dr. Frank Qian, clinical fellow in medicine, Harvard Medical School

 

“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.” 

Study Statement 

"That [gender differential in study outcomes] was an interesting part of the study for me, and I hope we can find that answer with more research. [One potential reason for that 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 under-diagnosed or misdiagnosed because they may not present with the classic symptoms that we see when we’re evaluating men.Maybe we need to ask different questions or look at different parameters, or is there something we’re missing here?"

Dr. Raj Dasgupta, sleep specialist, associate professor of clinical medicine, University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine

Getting good sleep could add years to your life, a study suggests (Alamy/PA)

A new study on the qualitative benefits of sleep was presented recently at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session, Researchers involved in the study looked at data collected from 172,321 individuals participating in the National Health Interview Survey that took place between 2013 an 2018. 

It has been fairly well established by science that insufficient sleep will increase risk of health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. This study, however, shows for the first time that good sleep has benefits leading to increased life expectancy. To the present a premise that had never been put through a study microscope.

Now, scientists at Harvard University have definitively found that a good night's sleep has the potential to add years to one's life. Studying data from over 170,000 people, researchers found that those people who enjoyed good-quality sleep lived longer than those whose sleep patterns are found wanting in quality and duration.

According to the study, life may be extended by close to five years for men and over two years, for women. Eight percent of deaths from any cause may be linked to poor sleep, according to the study results. Those who realized the largest benefit slept for between seven and eight hours nightly and experienced no difficulty falling asleep, nor problems staying asleep.

And nor did any of these subjects make use of sleep medication. They routinely reported feeling well-rested on waking at least five days each week. Life expectancy in those who reported quality sleep was 4.7 years greater for men and 2.4 years for women.

"Certainly all of us... have those nights where we might be staying up late doing something or stressed out about the next day."

 "If that's a fairly limited number of days a week where that's happening, it seems like that's OK, but if it's occurring more frequently then that's where we run into problems."

Frank Qian, study co-author, Harvard Medical School 

Based on an assessment of five different factors in quality sleep, researchers determined the key habits for high-quality sleep are…

1. Seven to eight hours of sleep per night
2. Difficulty falling asleep no more than twice a week
3. Trouble staying asleep no more than twice a week
4. Not using any sleep medication
5. Feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week