By John Salak –
A sound night’s sleep may not only make people feel better, but it could also just be the ticket to staying healthy, living longer, and perhaps being smarter—at least, that is what several breaking research studies are reporting.
Unfortunately, getting the seven to eight hours of sleep most adults need is easier said than done. According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, about 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, and a third (about 85 million) fail to get sufficient, uninterrupted sleep to keep them healthy.
Coming up short on quality sleep is more than simply unhealthy. It may even be deadly. New research presented to the American College of Cardiology reported that about eight percent of deaths from any cause could be attributed to poor sleep patterns.
Beyond this, restful, uninterrupted sleep supports heart and overall health and has the potential to increase the longevity of young people.
“We saw a clear dose-response relationship, so the more beneficial factors someone has, in terms of having a higher quality of sleep, they also have a stepwise lowering of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality,” said study co-author Dr. Frank Qian of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “I think these findings emphasize that getting enough sleep isn’t sufficient. You have to have restful sleep and not have much trouble falling and staying asleep.”
Qian’s team relieved on data from almost 175,000 adults with an average age of 50. They tracked participants’ sleep, health and life expectancy patterns for 4.3 years. During this time, 8,681 individuals died, including 2,610 deaths (30 percent) from cardiovascular disease, 2,052 (24 percent) from cancer and 4,019 (46 percent) from other causes.
Ultimately, they graded sleep quality based on several factors and discovered those who slept better; lived longer, healthier lives.
“If people have all these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer,” Qian said. “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.”
The beneficial impact of high-quality sleep was even greater on men than women in terms of life expectancy. It increased longevity by 4.7 years for men compared to 2.4 years for women, although the research team could not tell why this occurred.
“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,” Qian said. “It’s important for younger people to understand that many health behaviors are cumulative over time. Like we say, ‘it’s never too late to exercise or stop smoking,’ it’s also never too early. And we should be talking about and assessing sleep more often.”
According to the National University of Singapore, the effects of poor sleep impacts academic performance and cognitive skills.
The research focused on the impact of early morning classes on sleep patterns and academic performance for thousands of high school and university students. The study revealed that early classes resulted in poor sleep quality, negatively impacting attendance and academic performance.
“If the goal of formal education is to position our students to succeed in the classroom and workforce, why are we forcing many university students into the bad decision of either skipping morning class to sleep more or attending class while sleep-deprived?” asked Prof Joshua Gooley. “The take-home message from our study is that universities should reconsider mandatory early morning classes.”
The team is investigating differences between class attendance, sleep, well-being and academic performance between early birds and night owls. “We expect to find that evening-type students will be at a learning disadvantage in early morning classes and have lower class attendance, shorter sleep, poorer mental health and lower grades compared with their peers,” Gooley said.
