In the world of nutritional supplements, a product that helps maintain healthy sleep patterns isn't typically at the top of the list for most people. However, if you can find a supplement that helps you get a regular seven to eight hours of sleep every night, it could just be the best investment you could make. The dividend it pays is likely a longer life. A new study has provided startling data on just how important healthy sleep is related to longevity. In fact, the study's primary finding was that sleep quality is even more vital to living a longer life than diet and exercise. The study, published December 2025 in the journal SLEEP Advances, even advanced a call-to-action for doctors to start treating sleep as a primary vital sign--saying its just as important as monitoring heart rate or blood pressure. Sleep and longevity To conduct the study, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), reviewed data from the CDC, along with other national health surveys, with a goal of establishing which lifestyle factors can most accurately predict how long people are likely to live. After a thorough examination of the years 2019 through 2025, the researchers found a very clear "leaderboard" of risks: First, smoking was still the number one predictor of a shorter life... but then the big shock: The number two predictor of a shorter life was insufficient sleep patterns. Poor diet and lack of exercise both ranked below sleep in terms of their power to predict mortality. Interestingly, "loneliness" was another factor the researchers said served as a predictor of shorter life, but it also ranked below sleep quality. Lead researcher in the study, Dr. Andrew McHill, noted that while scientists always recognized the critical nature of sleep, the "strength of the association" in the new data caught everyone off guard with the striking evidence it provided regarding the importance of sufficient sleep. The "swamping" of other health builders The correlation between sleep and a shorter lifespan was so strong that researchers said it "swamped" or outweighed the benefits of a good diet and regular exercise in their statistical models. "Swamping" means that poor sleep is so detrimental that a person who is eating right and exercising every day still would not overcome the detrimental effects. That person would still be at a high risk for a shortened lifespan. The seven-hour brain benefit The study defined "insufficient sleep" as less than seven hours. According to the researchers, without at least seven hours, the brain can't effectively clear out metabolic waste, such as beta-amyloid. (This finding also helps explain why the study also strongly linked poor sleep to dementia risk. The researchers found a "year-to-year correlation" between sleep and longevity across almost every U.S. state. They learned that as sleep rates in a specific county dropped, the life expectancy for that area dropped almost immediately afterward. The reset that supports the heart The researchers also found that sleep acts as a "biological reset" that is critical to lowering cardiovascular disease risk. Without the day-to-day reset, the heart never gets a true break. This leads to higher baseline blood pressure and arterial stiffness. If there was one positive take-away from the study, it is the fact that the life-shortening effect is one of cumulative damage. While it is true that a single night of poor sleep can result in measurable cognitive deficiencies, a person's life is not shortened from a single bad night's sleep. In fact, the researchers noted that the very reason they compared long term sleep deficiency to smoking is because of this "cumulative" damage aspect. Just as a person does not get lung cancer from one cigarette, they will not get heart disease from one late night. But, as the OHSU researchers noted, consistent short sleep (under seven hours) creates a "weathering" effect on the arteries and DNA--one that looks almost identical to the long-term damage caused by a pack-a-day smoking habit. Optimal Health Systems products that help support healthy sleep patterns include Optimal Calm and Optimal Sleep Gummies. - - - Primary source for this article: SLEEP Advances. Â
