03/02/2026
March is Sleep Awareness Month, and here’s your first PSA: sleeping less than seven hours a night may quietly reduce your lifespan.
A nationwide analysis from Oregon Health & Science University found that insufficient sleep was more strongly linked to shorter life expectancy than diet, physical activity, or social isolation. Only smoking showed a greater association.
Researchers analyzed U.S. county-level data year after year and found the same pattern across nearly every state: people who consistently slept fewer than seven hours tended to live shorter lives.
Source: Kathryn E McAuliffe et al. Sleep insufficiency and life expectancy at the state-county level in the United States, 2019–2025, SLEEP Advances, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2025, zpaf090, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleepadvances/zpaf090