Good sleep means longer life expectancy and the better the sleep, so many more years one can add to one’s lifeshows a new American scientific study.

Even those young people with healthier sleep habits are less likely to die prematurely.

According to the survey, about 8% of deaths from any cause could be partially attributed to bad sleep.

The researchers, led by Dr. Frank Qian of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, who made the announcement at an international cardiology conference in the US, studied data on 172,321 people with an average age of 50 who were followed averaged over four years, during which 8,681 people died.

30% of deaths were due to cardiovascular causes, 24% to cancers and 46% to other causes.

The likelihood of death was associated with five factors of good sleep: duration of seven to eight hours in the evenings, difficulty falling asleep no more than twice a week, difficulty maintaining sleep no more than twice a week, no use of sleep medication, feeling rested after waking up.

The more of these five factors one collects and the higher the “score” one has in each one (on a scale of 0-5), the more quality and beneficial for health the sleep is considered to be.

At the other end is poor sleep or a sleep disorder.

The study found that, relative to those with none or only one favorable sleep factor, those with all five were 30% less likely to die prematurely from any cause, 21% from cardiovascular disease, 19% from cancer and 40% less likely from another cause (accident, infection, neurodegenerative disease such as dementia and Parkinson’s etc.).

Among those with all five sleep quality factors, life expectancy was an average of 4.7 years longer for men and 2.4 years longer for women than those with none or only one good sleep factor.

More research is needed, according to the researchers, to understand why men who sleep very well have twice the life expectancy of women who sleep very well.

“If people have all these ideal behaviors in their sleep, they’re more likely to live longer. So if we can improve sleep in general—and that’s why it’s important to identify sleep disorders—we can help to prevent them to some degree. these premature deaths” said Dr. Qian.

“Even from a young age, if people can develop these good sleep habits, it can benefit their health over time. It is important for young people to understand that healthy behaviors work cumulatively over time. Just as we say it’s never too late to exercise or quit smoking, the same goes for sleep“, said the lead researcher.

“We must also emphasize that it is not enough to sleep several hours. One must really rest in his sleep and have no problem either falling asleep or staying asleep“, he added.

Previous research has shown that both too little and too much sleep can negatively affect the heart.