How did you sleep last night? Did your smartring congratulate you on 8.5 sleepmaxxed hours in a cool, blackout-dark room after two hours' withdrawal from blue light and devices? You follow all the advice and it works! Good for you, but maybe you are getting too much sleep.
New Research on Optimal Sleep Duration
Research published in Nature this month suggests we probably need fewer than eight hours, while excess shut-eye is associated with accelerated ageing of your organs, in the same way that getting too little is. Using data from the 500,000-strong volunteer UK Biobank, the study gets granular on how much sleep is optimal: between 6.4 and 7.8 hours. Women need marginally more than men; maybe patriarchy makes us six minutes wearier.
It is a tiny victory for people for whom eight hours is a quixotic dream, but having access to such specific information has other implications. The study lead, Junhao Wen, explained to the Washington Post that the findings provide guidance and are not prescriptive, but good luck getting that message to the longevity crew or orthosomniacs (people who obsess about perfect sleep, usually enabled by wearable technology). Sleep trackers may soon administer electric shocks once the wearer hits their optimal hours, perhaps with a recorded message: 'Warning, your organs are prematurely ageing!'
The Problem with Sleep Obsession
I understand it is important and fascinating for science to explore, but surely, for the rest of us, sleep is best left mysterious. Beyond basic sleep hygiene, there is so little we can do to achieve the 'ideal' amount of unconsciousness – and knowing precisely how bad that is for us is unhelpful.
The less I know, the better I sleep. The only tracker I need is a pillow-crease check in the unforgiving bathroom mirror: a good night leaves me looking like Iggy Pop. Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist.
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