Sleep Less, Live Longer

Linuxathome writes: "The Washington Post carried an article describing the results of a study linking the average amount of sleep one gets per night with his/her life span. It appears that those who sleep less than 8 hours a night, live longer (optimum is 7 hours). The study (link to the abstract) was aimed at looking at the mortality rate of those suffering from insomnia. But rather than associating insomnia with increased risk of death, it appears that sleeping more than 8 hours carries a much higher risk."

Comments

post & propter and all that ....

[roffe]

it seems from the report that the data are based on actual sleeping habits. this is to say that the time spent sleeping is, if anything, a symptom, not a cause. lots of rich people fly to Paris every day. this does not mean that flying to Paris every day will make you any richer.

Re:post & propter and all that ....

[President Chimp Toe]

Yes, causation is a well known problem in science. In particular, so-called "confounding factors". To illustrate the point, I shall use an example:

A few years ago it was widely publicised that that drinking red wine was healthy and made you live longer. The research was published and looked solid. However, the researchers had not accounted for the confounding factor of lifestyle. People who drink red wine tend to be richer, live healthier lifestyles and drink in moderation (e.g. like the french - a glass or two of wine with dinner every day). However, beer drinkers tend to "binge-drink", and although they may drink the same units of alcohol as a wine drinker, they tend to consume them all in one sitting.

In fact, it turns out that drinking a small amount of alcohol every day is good for you (which red wine drinkers do), wherease too much alcohol is obviously bad.

These types of mistakes in science still occur with alarming regularity, especially as sometimes the confounding factors can be subtle, confusing and unexpected. However, the researchers who conducted this study seem well aware of the problem. The last sentance of their abstract reads:

"Causality is unproven."

As the researchers are well aware, it is quite likely that this is an indirect relationship between life expectancy/sleep that we are observing.

For example (i may get flamed for this, but i'm just brainstorming), many of the great achievers I have met in my life slept very little - they were too energetic, alive and aspirational to lye in bed. They also achieved (or will achieve) great things - they are rich, have a good lifestyle and medical cover etc.

Alot of the "layabout" types I have met seemed far more interested in spending 12+ hours in bed than actually doing anything with there life.

I am sure the problem is far more complex than this, but you can see how other factors may form tentative links between cause and effect.

Argghhh!

[AnonymousHero]

If I could tattoo one thing on everyone's head, it'd be: "Correlation does not equal causation!"

This study does not mean that if you sleep less, you will live longer. A correlation has been found, that's all. Maybe people who sleep less have better circulation, also linked with long life. Or maybe the space aliens who shorten life spend two hours a night doing it.

Point is, we don't know what's causing this effect, at least not from this article.

In related news...

[gnovos]

...Studies found that many people undergoing chemotherapy eventually die of cancer. The number was so high, in fact, that the only conclusion we can draw is that chemotheraphy causes cancer.

And tonight at 10: "Tylenol: headache in a bottle?"

My Take

[KurdtX]

I agree completely with roffe.

Think about it, who do you know that sleeps 8+ hours a day, other than the elderly and sick (both groups who at more likely to die than the average person)? And from my experience, the "average person" generally has more important things to do than spend 8+ hours a day sleeping. So as roffe said, sleeping 8+ hours a day is more likely a symptom of someone trying to maintain their health, because they are in danger of dying.

To put it another way, when I had mono I was sleeping 12 hours a day, and the hours I was awake, it felt like I was dying. And it wasn't like I had to force myself to sleep, my body was naturally making me sleep longer so I wouldn't end up dying. And gee, would you guess what? When I got better, I went back to my normal 6-7 hours of sleeping!

Does anyone want to fund my study? I'm going to see if age has anything to do with death.

Knitting up the ravl'd sleeve

[hey!]

Alot of the "layabout" types I have met seemed far more interested in spending 12+ hours in bed than actually doing anything with there life.


It isn't just a lack of joie de vivre; hypersomnia (sleeping a long time) can be a sign of serious chronic illness such as major depression.

The press is picking up on this as a "sleep is bad for you" story. In fact, another interpretation that fits the observation equally well is that health people require less sleep than people with chronic illness. In that case, it would be very unfortunate if people take this to mean they can improve their health by reducing the amount they sleep, because this would very likely injure it.