U.S. Study Links Too Little Sleep to Lower Life Expectancy
An OHSU analysis of 2019–2025 CDC surveys ranks sleep as the leading behavioral predictor after smoking, with results limited to correlation.
Overview
- Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University published the findings in SLEEP Advances on December 8, 2025.
- They compared county-level life expectancy with CDC survey responses and found consistent year-to-year correlations across states.
- The modeling used the CDC definition of sufficient sleep as at least seven hours per night, consistent with professional guidance.
- Sleep outperformed diet, exercise, and loneliness as a predictor in the models, trailing only smoking among behavioral factors.
- The authors recommend aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep nightly, while emphasizing that mechanisms were not assessed and causation is not established.