For a long time now, healthy advice from experts in Spain for avoid diseases, maintain metabolic balance and replenish energy have established the recommended night’s rest time at eight hours a day. An ideal figure that, in most cases and in the adult population, we cannot meet due to a thousand and one circumstances.
Fortunately, a recent study of the Oxford Universitypublished in the National Library of Medicine concludes that, even more important than the number of hours we dedicate to sleep, it is establish a routine and keep it immovable. That is, we can only sleep 7 hours, but if we do it correctly, it will be better than sleeping longer and with poorer quality.
Sleep: better quantity or quality?
As the recently made public study explains, abnormally short or excessively long sleep is associated in medicine with premature mortality. Thus, this research and others like it demonstrate that sleep regularity, the daily consistency of the sleep-wake schedule, surely becomes a much more interesting gauge of general health.
The conclusions of this study show that sleep regularitywith habits always more or less the same that guarantee real rest, without interruptions, is the most reliable measure of mortality risk.
Thus, sleeping enough hours is important to enjoy optimal health, but new evidence shows that doing so at regular times could become even more necessary. The measures carried out in this investigation establish Associations between irregular sleep and adverse cardiometabolic outcomesas well as epigenetic aging, risk of depression and a lower quality of life.
These are the hours we should sleep to protect our health
Although the study refers to the definitive importance of maintaining sleep hygiene, with similar schedules each day, and routines that allow us to truly rest without interruptions, the number of Recommended hours range between 7 and 9. Sinning both by defect and excess of this interval harms both physical and mental health (cognitive decline, depression).
Another study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, recommends sleeping, at a minimum, seven hours to maintain healthy aging. Starting from the premise that it is essential that rest be continuous and without interruptions, it has been shown that those who sleep less than seven hours a day are more likely to develop chronic diseases.
To get a good night’s sleep, the vast majority of experts agree on recommending an early dinner, not a heavy onelow in carbohydrates and refined sugars that will cause inflammation… and of course leaving electronic devices several hours before going to bed.
References
Daniel P. Windred, Angus C. Burns, Jacqueline M. Lane, Richa Saxena, Martin K. Rutter, Sean W. Cain, Andrew J.K. Phillips. ‘Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study’. National Library of Medicine. Sleep, Volume 47, Issue 1, January 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37738616/
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