To live well, you must sleep well. So far, no wonder, it's a common assertion. Except that according to Frank Qian, clinician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, United States, we must go further. According to his studies, the quality of sleep should be favored over the quantity. He established the five factors for good sleep, which he explained to The Guardian: "Sleep between seven and eight hours a night, be prone to insomnia no more than twice a week, have no trouble falling asleep more than twice a week, not using sleeping pills, and feeling rested after waking at least five days a week. »
To reach such conclusions, the researcher and his team analyzed sleep data from 172,321 people, aged around 50 on average, for just over four years. During this period, 8,681 people in the survey died. The study, which will be presented in detail in early March, is adamant that people with all five quality sleep factors "were 30% less likely to die from any cause, 21% less likely to succumbing to cardiovascular disease and 19% fewer dying from cancer."
"I think these results highlight that getting enough hours of sleep isn't enough. You really need to have a restful sleep and not have too much trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. If people have all of these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer. So if we can improve sleep in general, and the identification of sleep disorders is particularly important, we may be able to prevent some premature mortality,” insists Frank Qian.
Also according to this study, men are advantaged if they respect the five criteria of good sleep. They would indeed gain 4.7 years of life expectancy, against 2.4 years for women. Figures still unexplained, further research will have to be done to determine the reasons for this male advantage.
While the people studied were mostly in their 50s, the findings hold true for everyone, according to Frank Qian: "Even from an early age, if people can develop these good sleep habits of getting enough sleep, making sure that they sleep without too many distractions and that they have good overall sleep hygiene can greatly benefit their overall long-term health. »
The scientific survey, however, contains a flaw in its methodology: sleep patterns were self-reported by the people taking part, and not measured objectively by the scientists.
