Key sleep behaviours that could improve life expectancy identified by researchers
CTV
Research being presented at an annual event hosted by the American College of Cardiology has revealed five essential sleep habits that have shown to improve longevity in some individuals.
Clocking enough hours of sleep each night is known to be important for good health, but new research suggests overall sleep habits throughout the week could be the real key to a longer life.
New research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with the World Congress of Cardiology in March has revealed five sleep indicators that have shown to improve longevity in some individuals, as reported by Science Daily.
The researchers examined data from more than 170,000 people who participated in the U.S. National Health Interview Survey between 2013 and 2018, which functions to monitor the health of Americans through their responses to various health-related questions.
From there, researchers focused on five different factors of quality sleep to understand how it affects life expectancy.
CTV News has compared the U.S. research below with information from Statistics Canada when available, for an idea of how the research could impact those north of the border.
According to StatCan, a quality sleep is defined as how well someone goes to sleep, and stays asleep, and contributes to both one’s physical and mental health.
The five sleep factors included in the U.S. study were: ideal sleep duration of seven to eight hours a night (which, 65 per cent of Canadians ages 18 to 64 reportedly get each night); difficulty falling asleep no more than two times a week; trouble staying asleep no more than two times a week; not using any sleep medication; and feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week.
