Good Sleep Can Make You Feel Young
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, March 28, 2024 -- A good night’s sleep can make you feel years younger, while crummy sleep leaves you doddering around like an oldster, a new study shows.
Sleeping well enough to feel extremely sharp when you wake is associated with feeling four years younger than one’s actual age, researchers found.
On the other hand, extreme sleepiness makes a person feel six years older than they really are, results show.
“This means that going from feeling alert to sleepy added a striking 10 years to how old one felt,” said researcher Leonie Balter, with Stockholm University's Department of Psychology.
For this study, researchers first surveyed 429 people ages 18 to 70 about how old they felt, how much sleep they get and how sleepy they felt.
The survey results showed that for each night a person had insufficient sleep, they felt about three months older than they actually were, on average.
Based on this, the researchers designed an experiment to test whether good sleep could make someone feel young and vibrant.
Previous research has shown that feeling younger than one’s actual age is associated with living a longer and healthier life, and there’s even evidence that people who feel young have younger brains, researchers said.
“Given that sleep is essential for brain function and overall well-being, we decided to test whether sleep holds any secrets to preserving a youthful sense of age,” Balter said.
The experiment involved 186 people ages 18 to 46. Participants were asked to restrict their sleep to just four hours in bed for two nights, and at another time asked to sleep nine hours in bed for two nights.
After a couple four-hour nights, participants felt 4.4 years older, on average, than they did when they got sufficient sleep, researchers report.
The new study was published March 27 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.
“Safeguarding our sleep is crucial for maintaining a youthful feeling,” Balter concluded. “This, in turn, may promote a more active lifestyle and encourage behaviors that promote health, as both feeling young and alert are important for our motivation to be active.”
Sources
- Stockholm University, news release, March 27, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted March 2024
Read this next
Suicidal Impulses May Peak During Restless Nights
FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 -- The wee hours of the morning could be the most dangerous for someone on the brink of suicide or homicide, a new study shows. There’s a five-fold...
Night Owls Could Be Upping Their Mental Health Risks
FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 -- People who regularly stay up until the wee hours of the morning could be harming their mental health, a new study finds. Regardless of whether people were...
Kids in Noisy Neighborhoods More Prone to Anxiety
WEDNESDAY, May 29, 2024 -- Children exposed to traffic and other noise in their neighborhoods may be at higher risk for anxiety, researchers conclude, while air pollution could...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.
