Irregular sleep is more harmful than short sleep sessions, study suggests

According to an Atlantic-spanning report, regular sleep patterns play a stronger role in overall health than sleep duration. A study of 60,000 people in the UK found that those with regular sleep patterns were more likely to die before the age of 75.

“Sleep regularity was a significant predictor of cardiometabolic, cancer, and other causes of death in competing-risk proportional hazards models,” he concluded. Reportthe host According to the Illinois-based Sleep Research Association, the optimal amount of sleep is between 6.5 and 7.5 hours per night.

The study was conducted by a large, multidisciplinary international team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Broad Institute—a biomedical and genomic research center in Cambridge, Mass.—Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Monash University in Australia, and the University of Manchester in the UK.

Although the study was drawn from a large participant group, the researchers also acknowledged several limitations, including studying participants for only one week, asynchronous data collection, and focusing on older participants from similar backgrounds. The team also said that while there is a link between sleep regularity and mortality, it does not prove that one causes the other.

Thanks to the so-called “hustle culture” and the “get up and grind” attitude, sleep is often put on the back burner, sacrificing driving for efficiency. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk championed short sleep sessions. However, research shows that long-term sleep deprivation can have a negative impact on health and may mean an early death.

Recently, scientists have suggested Lack of enough sleep, even on a regular schedule, can cause chronic fatigue – such as Regular sleep contributes to overall well-being.

“Getting 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is better than pulling an all-nighter for 12 hours,” says Biqual Luo, CEO of Sleep Masks. LumosTech. “But if you've been sleeping 5 hours straight and you're feeling tired, trying to catch up on sleep may serve you better.”

While Musk may claim that he works effectively on six hours of sleep, the famous biohacker and founder of the anti-aging Blueprint Project; Brian JohnsonIt will be called more soon Sleep Essential for better cognitive and emotional performance.

“Regularity and duration are both important components of healthy sleep – it's not a matter of choosing one over the other.” Jeff Kahn, CEO and founder of sleep app developer Rise Science, told Decrypt. “Furthermore, the concept of long-term sleep should be contextualized as getting the right amount for the individual rather than sleeping longer.”

According to Khan, a person's sleep needs are unique, ethnically determined and on a spectrum. This means they may need six hours a night, while others may take up to nine hours to feel rested.

Khan emphasizes the need to balance prioritizing the right amount of sleep for one's individual needs and a consistent sleep schedule to achieve optimal sleep health.

“It's also important to note that prolonged sleep is not inherently beneficial if it exceeds the individual's natural need for sleep,” Khan said. “However, it is important to sleep longer to catch up on lost sleep, known as ‘paying off' the sleep debt. In such cases, extending sleep beyond the normal requirement can be restorative and beneficial as it helps the body recover from the deficit.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.