If you’re getting eight hours of sleep a night, you’re doing bed-der than most.
Adults are encouraged to snooze seven to nine hours for optimal health, but only 30% to 45% of Americans follow this recommendation. Poor sleep can raise the risk of dementia, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and even certain cancers.
Now there’s more bad news for insomniacs — a new study from Vanderbilt University reports that subpar sleep can increase the risk of premature death by up to 29%.
“This study highlights the importance of maintaining healthy sleep over time,” sleep epidemiologist Dayna Johnson, who was not involved with the study, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
“It also raises critical questions about the potential for recovery from insufficient sleep and the time required to reverse its effects on health outcomes,” she added.
The researchers analyzed the sleep habits of nearly 47,000 low-income adults 40 to 79 years old. Participants shared their average sleep duration five years apart.
Sleep was deemed “healthy” if it lasted seven to nine hours, “short” if it was less than seven hours and “long” if it was more than nine hours.
Sleep patterns fit into one of nine categories. “Short-long” meant the participant initially slept under seven hours a night before transitioning to nine-plus hours a night during the five-year period.
About 66% of participants had substandard slumber — they either slept less than seven hours or more than nine at a time.
The most common sleep patterns were “short-short,” “short-healthy” and “healthy-short.”
“Short-short” and “healthy-short” participants were more likely to be women.
Sleepers were followed for about 12 years. More than 13,500 participants died during this time, including 4,100 from heart disease and 3,000 from cancer.
Those with “short-long” or “long-short” sleep habits were at a particularly high risk for early death.
Researchers cautioned against reaching conclusions from the findings — published Thursday in JAMA Network Open — because the sleep data represents only two points in time.
Still, getting good sleep is essential. Dr. Yi Cai, director of sleep surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, shared seven healthy slumber habits with The Post.
How to improve sleep
- Abstain from alcohol before bed — booze can interfere with later stages of sleep, especially deep REM sleep, leaving you groggy and unrested.
- Avoid large meals two to three hours before bedtime since they can trigger acid reflux, indigestion or discomfort that disrupts sleep.
- Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet. A cool room helps the body naturally lower its temperature, which promotes sleep. Use blackout curtains or a sleep mask to block out light and earplugs or a white noise machine to minimize disruptions.
- Start your day with bright light — preferably sunlight — to help regulate your body’s internal clock, but avoid blue light from phones, tablets and computers at least an hour before bed.
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day — even on weekends — to keep the internal clock on track.
- Exercise regularly to reduce anxiety, depression and overall stress — but don’t do it three to four hours before bed because physical activity can raise heart rate and body temperature, making it difficult to unwind.
- Consult a sleep specialist if you snore, experience daytime fatigue and feel unrested despite a full night’s sleep. These symptoms may indicate sleep apnea, a common condition that causes you to stop breathing during sleep.
