Sleep Regularity Predicts Mortality Risk Better Than Sleep Duration

A study published in the journal Sleep found that how consistently a person sleeps and wakes each day is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than total sleep duration. Researchers analyzed sleep patterns to determine which factors most significantly correlated with long-term health outcomes. The findings suggest that maintaining a regular sleep schedule may be more critical to longevity than simply clocking a certain number of hours. This challenges the conventional emphasis on sleep duration as the primary metric of healthy sleep. The research highlights sleep regularity as an important, and potentially underappreciated, factor in public health guidance.