Category Archives: Longevity

Youve no doubt read hundreds of articles over the years with helpful advice for creating healthy habits that improve the quality and quantity of your lifeeverything from walking 10,000 steps a day and eating more of a plant-based diet to staying hydrated and keeping a gratitude journal.

And while all of these are indeed healthy habits, they only yield their most impressive results when paired with one critical habit thats often overlooked. In fact, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 1 in 3 adults arent meeting the bare minimum in this category (a category as basic as the need to eat, drink or breathe), and this deficiency could lead to a host of physical and mental problems, injuries, loss of productivity and a greater likelihood of early death.

The most important habit to start ASAP if youre one of the 33% of American adults who don't get enough rest or sleep every day is getting your full 40 winks each night.

Sleep plays a critical role in every aspect of our physical, cognitive and emotional health and well-being, says Shantha Gowda, Psy.D., DBSM, a licensed clinical health psychologist who is board-certified in behavioral sleep medicine and built the first sleep and circadian health program for the Marine Corps Special Operations Command. Insufficient sleep adversely affects all of our organ systems.

But it goes beyond thatmany experts consider sufficient sleep the key to longevity, and study results support this theory.

Sure, enough sleep can improve your mood and help you meet the demands of everyday life, but those obvious results are just the tip of the iceberg.

Adequate sleep is crucial for maintaining genomic stability, reducing oxidative stress and enhancing telomere length, all of which are hallmarks associated with aging, says sleep and longevity expert Alka Patel, M.B.B.S. In the context of longevity, sleep is not just a passive state but an active, dynamic process crucial for maintaining health and optimizing longevity.

Additionally, she explains that sleep supports neuroplasticity, the brains capacity to change and rewire itself based on learning and experience, which is essential for cognitive health and memory consolidation. Also, it regulates the hormones responsible for appetite, thus playing a role in maintaining healthy body weight and reducing the risk of metabolic disorders.

Patel says that the research on the relationship between deep sleep and Alzheimer's disease from the University of California, Berkeley, provides some compelling insights: The small study published in 2023 in BMC Medicine suggests that non-REM slow-wave sleep, also known as deep sleep, can act as a protective factor against the memory decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. The study found that those with higher amounts of deep sleep showed better memory function than those with less deep sleep.

An older study published in 2010 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism provides significant insights into the relationship between sleep and metabolic health, particularly focusing on how sleep deprivation can lead to insulin resistance, Patel continues. This study demonstrates that even a single night of partial sleep deprivation can induce insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in healthy subjects.

And one 2023 study addressing sleep and longevity from the American College of Cardiology highlights the importance of both quantity and quality sleep in reducing all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. We know that poor sleep quality/quantity increases the risk for heart disease, and this supports this conceptemphasizing that the more beneficial sleep habits an individual has, the less likely they are to die early, says Gowda.

What constitutes adequate sleep varies by person, making it impossible to set a number to strive for across the board. The National Sleep Foundation, per ScienceDirect, recommends an average of seven to nine hours of sleep per night for adults 18 to 65 years old, but notes that as little as six hours and as many as 10 hours may also be appropriate depending on the individual and their personal and medical history.

Most adults know their own sweet spot, whether or not they routinely achieve it, and rely on such indicators as dozing off at inappropriate times, dark circles under their eyes and dips in concentration, energy levels or mood reflected in day-to-day activities to know when theyve been missing the mark too often.

When you wake up feeling refreshed and productive as you tackle your day and don't have overall complaints about your sleep, these are typical signs you're getting sufficient quality and quantity sleep, says Lara Barbir, M.S., Psy.D., a Southern California-based clinical psychologist and supervisor specializing in trauma, sleep medicine and women's health.

Of course, you dont want to swing that pendulum too far in the slumber direction, either. It's important to note that there's a certain threshold point where getting too much sleep is actually associated with increased risk of mortality, Barbir cautions.

Assuming youve already created an environment conducive to sleepsuch as a cool temperature, blackout curtains or an eye mask, and white noise or earplugstry the following tips for increasing your nightly shut-eye:

And if you notice any unusual sleep behaviors during the nightsuch as kicking or jerking movements of the legs, snoring, gasping for air, morning headaches, trouble falling or staying asleepBarbir says these are signs of possible sleep disorders that the tips above will not fix alone and thus warrant further evaluation by a specialist.

Sacrificing sleep to meet lifes nonstop demands may seem like a harmless choice in the moment. Still, sleep deprivation does more than leave you a bit cranky or foggy-brainedplus, it has been shown to have an adverse relationship to longevity. By prioritizing a full nights sleep on a regular basis, youre providing your body with an optimal environment that will help you thrive for decades to come. So go ahead and take that catnap, skip an early-morning workout if you didnt sleep well the night before, and slip into bed an hour earlier if the mood strikes, sans guilt. Prioritize sleep like your life depends on it.

Excerpt from:
Why Sleeping Enough Is the Best Habit to Live Longer - EatingWell