Dr Veena Aggarwal
Individuals with regular and optimal sleep pattern reduce their risk of premature death by nearly 40% compared to those with irregular and inadequate sleep pattern, according to a study presented at the 37th SLEEP 2023, annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) jointly organized by the Sleep Research Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The findings were simultaneously published in the journal Sleep.1
In the present study, researchers analysed data of participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep Study to ascertain a link between regular optimal sleep duration with all-cause mortality over a follow-up duration of 7 years. Sleep data was obtained via wrist actigraphy based on which 1015 subjects were grouped as regular-optimal” sleepers and 744 were categorized as “irregular-insufficient” sleepers.
Results showed an occurrence of 176 deaths. Those who adhered to a regular sleep schedule and also slept for sufficient duration lowered their mortality risk by 39% compared to the irregular-insufficient sleep group (hazard ratio 0.61) after adjusting for confounding variables such as socio-demographics, lifestyle, health status, and measures of major sleep disorders.
This study highlights the benefits of healthy sleep, which includes regular and optimal duration of good quality sleep. Other features of healthy sleep include appropriate timing and absence of disturbed sleep. In addition to getting adequate sleep, it is also important to stick to a schedule with regular bedtime and awake time.
References
- Chung J, et al. Abstract 0724. Objectively regular sleep of optimal duration and mortality: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Sleep. 2023 May;46 (Suppl 1):A318–A319. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad077.0724
- Regular, optimal sleep tied to lower mortality risk – Medscape – Jun 08, 2023.
Dr Veena Aggarwal, Consultant Womens’ Health, CMD and Editor-in-Chief, IJCP Group & Medtalks Trustee, Dr KK’s Heart Care Foundation of India