An extra 15 minutes of sleep can extend life by years – study
Kyiv • UNN
Australian scientists have found that an extra 15 minutes of sleep, a little more physical activity, and an additional serving of vegetables or fruits can reduce the risk of premature death by 10%. The study covered data from 60,000 people over an eight-year period, analyzing sleep, physical activity, and diet quality.
Australian scientists have found that even 15 minutes of extra sleep, a little more physical activity, and an additional serving of vegetables or fruits can reduce the risk of premature death by 10%.
This is reported by UNN with reference to Daily Mail.
Details
A team led by Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, an exercise researcher based at the University of Sydney, studied data from 60,000 people over an eight-year period, recording how long they slept, how many minutes they spent exercising, and their dietary quality score (DQS).
The DQS score (from 0 to 100) is based on the consumption of vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy products, whole grains, vegetable oils, refined grains, processed meat, and unprocessed meat.
Previous research showed that one in seven Britons sleeps less than five hours, significantly less than the NHS-recommended seven to nine hours.
Professor Stamatakis's team found that if you sleep 5.5 hours, exercise only 7.3 minutes a day, and your DQS score is 36.9, then to reduce the risk of mortality, you need to adjust these three areas.
An extra 15 minutes of sleep, 1.6 minutes more exercise, and eating an additional half serving of vegetables a day – or one less serving of processed meat per week – can reduce the risk of death by 10%
If you sleep an additional 75 minutes a day, dedicate 12.5 minutes a day to moderately intense physical activity, and increase your DQS score by 25 points to 61.9, the risk of death is halved, the publication writes, citing the team's data.
It is noted that examples of moderately intense physical activity include swimming, running, brisk walking, water aerobics, doubles tennis, dancing, and cycling.
Half a serving of vegetables can be: a broccoli stalk, a tablespoon of cooked spinach, a heaped teaspoon of cooked kale, 2.5 cm of cucumber, or half a medium tomato.
Meanwhile, processed meats that can be excluded include bacon, sausages, ham, hot dogs, salami, corned beef, and spam. Other studies link highly processed foods to obesity, heart disease, colorectal and breast cancer, diabetes, and dementia.
Similarly, studies have shown that prolonged sleep deprivation increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke
The ideal "optimal combination," as the Australian researchers found, was "between 7.2 and eight hours of sleep, between 42 and 103 minutes of moderately intense physical activity, and a high DQS score."
In the journal BMC Medicine, Australian researchers noted that changes in these three areas – SPAN, which stands for sleep, physical activity, and nutrition – work best in combination.
We want to lower the bar for participation and lower the bar for movement. It's about providing options for the 80 or 85 percent of the population who are not interested in regular, structured exercise. These steps, he explained, "are not the optimal fitness solution" that would require "structured exercise" and "serious commitment"
"These are accessible and manageable changes that can influence people to implement them, ideally simultaneously, into their lives in the long term," the professor said.
Dr. Nicholas Comel from the same university added: "It's about a few minutes of extra workout duration for 15 minutes combined with 15 extra minutes of sleep and half to one extra serving of fruits and vegetables, or similar improvements in other aspects of our diet."
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