Can your sleep habits impact your longevity? Research has shown that if you sleep too much or not enough, your risk of death increases significantly. This could be a result of the impact of sleep itself on overall health or it could be because other diseases impact both longevity and sleep duration.
If people sleep less than 7 hours a night or more than 8 hours a night, they have an increased risk of death. For short sleep women, that increase is 21% (men: 26%) and for long sleeping women, the increase is 17% (men: 24%). If they use sleep medications, their risk for death also increased. Women using them have a 39% increase in risk while men have a 31% increase.