SLEEP HABITS: REGULARITY IS KEY

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SLEEP HABITS: REGULARITY IS KEY






A new international study has found that irregular sleep schedules—like going to bed at different times every night or having a disrupted internal clock—could put you at higher risk for dozens of diseases, from liver problems to circulatory disorders. The research looked at sleep data from over 88,000 adults tracked for almost seven years, and the results are pretty eye-opening: poor sleep habits were tied to increased risk for 172 different diseases.

What stood out was that sleep regularity matters just as much—if not more—than how long you sleep. People who went to bed after 12:30 a.m. had more than double the risk of developing liver cirrhosis compared to those with steadier routines. Another finding: those with unstable daily rhythms were much more likely to develop gangrene.

The study also challenges the idea that sleeping more than nine hours is bad for you. When researchers used wearable devices to measure sleep objectively, they found that “long sleep” only showed up as a risk for one disease. Many so-called long sleepers weren’t sleeping that much—they just spent more time in bed awake.

“Our research shows that sticking to a regular sleep schedule is just as important as getting enough sleep,” said Prof. Shengfeng Wang, a senior author of the study. The team also found that inflammation might be the biological link between sleep irregularity and disease, and they confirmed their results using data from the U.S.

The message is clear: if you want to stay healthier as you age, pay attention not just to how much you sleep, but also to how consistent your sleep habits are. Researchers plan to dig deeper into whether improving sleep regularity can lower disease risk in the future.

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