Research
Mixed
Chronic insufficient sleep duration is causally associated with adverse health outcomes including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.
Prioritize getting enough sleep to avoid the high risks of chronic disease. If you are consistently sleeping less than recommended for your age group, you are increasing your risk for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Treat sleep with the same seriousness as your diet and exercise.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Habitual short sleep duration has been associated with adverse health outcomes including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, depression, and all-cause mortality.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple meta-analyses and prospective cohort studies cited in the review.
Source
Sleeping hours: what is the ideal number and how does age impact this?
Jean‐Philippe Chaput et al. · Nature and Science of Sleep · 2018
DOI 10.2147/nss.s163071
narrative_reviewCited 398×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- There is no universal 'magic number' for ideal sleep duration; optimal sleep is individualized based on genetic, environmental, and performance factors rather than a single population-wide recommendation.Good
- Long sleep duration (excessive) is independently associated with increased mortality risk in the elderly population, likely due to sleep fragmentation and underlying health conditions rather than sleep duration itself.Moderate
Related findings · Mixed
- Bariatric surgery (VSG and RYGB) is the most effective and sustainable treatment for obesity, producing marked and sustained weight loss that non-surgical interventions cannot match.Strong
- Severely protein-deficient diets (2–3% energy) induce lean body mass loss and metabolic imbalance, whereas adequate protein intake (0.66 g/kg/d minimum) is a prerequisite for maintaining muscle, bone, and physiological function.Strong
- For patients with Class III obesity (BMI >39.9 kg/m2), metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) is significantly more effective than any currently approved medication, with BilioPancreatic Diversion (BPD) showing the highest estimated weight loss.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →