Overview
- In The Lancet, device‑measured data from more than 135,000 adults show that an extra five minutes of moderate‑to‑vigorous activity per day is associated with about 10% fewer deaths, while cutting sedentary time by 30 minutes links to roughly a 5% reduction.
- An eClinicalMedicine modeling study using UK Biobank data estimates that for people with the poorest habits, a combined change of five more minutes of sleep, about two more minutes of exercise, and half a portion more vegetables could add roughly one year of life.
- The same modeling suggests those with the best sleep, activity and diet patterns live about 9.35 years longer than those with the worst profiles and spend more of those years in good health.
- A separate OHSU analysis in SLEEP Advances finds sleep sufficiency is more strongly correlated with U.S. county‑level life expectancy than diet, physical activity or social isolation, with only smoking showing a stronger association.
- Authors and independent experts stress these results come from observational data and statistical models with limitations such as self‑reported diet and short measurement windows, so causation is not established.