Research
Mixed
Short sleep duration (≤5 hours) is associated with increased mortality in elderly adults (60-86 years) but not in middle-aged adults (32-59 years) after adjusting for covariates.
If you are over 60, ensure you are getting at least 7 hours of sleep. Short sleep (≤5 hours) is linked to higher mortality in your age group, likely due to underlying health issues. For middle-aged adults, the link is less clear, but 7 hours remains the optimal baseline.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
A U-shaped relationship was found only in elderly subjects, with both short sleep duration (HR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.06-1.53) ... having significantly higher HRs.
Why this rating
Large longitudinal study with multivariate adjustments, though observational.
Source
Sleep Duration Associated with Mortality in Elderly, but not Middle-Aged, Adults in a Large US Sample
James E. Gangwisch et al. · SLEEP · 2008
DOI 10.5665/sleep/31.8.1087
cohort · n=9789Cited 221×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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