A new study has found that five good sleep habits can add an extra five years to a man’s life and 2.5 years to a woman’s life.

“If people follow all of these ideal sleep patterns, they are more likely to live longer. If we can improve overall sleep and recognize that disruption is important, we can prevent premature death,” explains study co-leader Dr. Frank Qian, research fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Five tips for healthy sleep

• First, scientists say, we need to get seven to eight hours of sleep every night, even if modern lifestyles don’t allow it.
• However, this dream must be significant. Not only to stay in bed longer, but to sleep well and peacefully more often.
• This means that at least twice a week we should not wake up during the night or have difficulty falling asleep.
• In addition, at least five days a week, we should wake up in the morning rested.
• And finally, we should not take drugs that help us sleep.

“We’re not just talking about the quality and quantity of sleep, but also about frequency, that is, about sleeping the same way night after night,” explains Raj Dasgupta, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at New York University. Southern California is one that did not participate in this study.

“Recent studies have shown that instability in the timing and duration of sleep is associated with metabolic disturbances and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. “Encouraging the maintenance of a regular, consistent sleep schedule may be an important part of lifestyle recommendations for preventing heart disease,” he adds.

The preliminary study, presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, analyzed data from at least 172,000 people who completed sleep questionnaires between 2013 and 2018, an annual survey conducted by the US CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics.

Differences between women and men

Each of these five healthy sleep habits—falling asleep easily, staying up at night, sleeping seven to eight hours a day, waking up refreshed, and not taking sleeping pills—was assigned a number. And people were asked to answer how many of these habits they responded to.

About four years later, the researchers compared these results with data from the National Mortality Index to see if any of these sleep behaviors contributed to early death from certain diseases or any other cause.

The researchers then took into account other potential causes that increase the risk of death, such as alcohol use, lower socioeconomic status, and pre-existing medical conditions.

Compared to people who had zero to one favorable sleep factor, those who had all five factors were 30% less likely to die from any cause.

“Compared to people who didn’t have good zero to one sleep habits, those who did all five conditions were less likely to

• 30% die from any cause,
• 21% die from cardiovascular diseases,
• 19% die from cancer and
• 40% die from other causes

According to the study, men who followed all five of these sleep recommendations had 4.7 years longer life expectancy than those who had none or only one of the five sleep components. .

In women, the impact of healthy sleep habits was much lower. Those who followed all five sleep habits recovered 2.4 years compared to those who followed none or only one.

Source: CNN