Longevity Briefs: Less than 6 hours a night increases risk of premature death

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Longevity briefs provides a short summary of a novel research, medicine, or technology that caught the attention of our researchers in Oxford, due to its potential to improve our health, wellbeing, and longevity.

Why is this research important: Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are currently the leading causes of death in the United States. Cerebrovascular disease refers to a group of conditions that are caused by a lack of blood supply to the brain.

In recent years, sleep is being more frequently recognized as a crucial contributor to all manner of health conditions. However, we still lack comprehensive understanding of the relationship between short sleep duration and adverse health outcomes.

What did the researchers do: To investigate this researchers looked at all-cause mortality data on 1654 adults in the Penn state adult cohort. These individuals were instructed to sleep one night in laboratory conditions where scientists could monitor sleep duration.

Key takeaway(s) from this research: The study found that individuals with cardiovascular (heart disease) or cerebrovascular disease (stroke) who slept under 6 hours a night were significantly more likely to die than those who slept for a longer duration.