Research

Mixed

Long sleep duration (>8 hours) in older adults is associated with increased mortality, but this risk is primarily explained by underlying health conditions and lifestyle factors rather than inflammation.

If you are an older adult sleeping more than 8 hours, your mortality risk is higher, but this is likely due to underlying health conditions or lifestyle factors rather than the sleep itself. Focus on managing chronic diseases and maintaining a healthy lifestyle rather than restricting sleep.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
the mortality risk associated with long sleep was explained predominantly by lifestyle and health status.
Martica H. Hall et al. · SLEEP · 2015

Why this rating

Same high-quality cohort data; attenuation analysis clearly separates the mechanisms.

Source

Association between Sleep Duration and Mortality Is Mediated by Markers of Inflammation and Health in Older Adults: The Health, Aging and Body Composition Study

Martica H. Hall et al. · SLEEP · 2015

DOI 10.5665/sleep.4394

cohort · n=3013Cited 152×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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