This Daily Habit Could Be Slowly Shortening Your Life

Unfortunately a lot of us are at risk.

January 12, 2026

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Sleep can feel like an inconvenient necessity with everything else you’ve got going on right now. But new research is serving up fresh motivation to put yourself to bed a little earlier: It could extend your life.

That’s the major takeaway from an analysis of nationwide health data published in Sleep Advances. Given that nearly 37% of American adults don’t get the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep a night, this is information worth paying attention to.

The link between sleep and longevity is a little complicated, but sleep medicine doctors say they’re not shocked by the findings. Here’s why, plus the biggest sleep traps they see people fall into.

The study found a clear link between time spent sleeping and lifespan.

For the study, researchers analyzed nationwide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey collected between 2019 and 2025. This survey is conducted each month by state health departments and looks at a range of behaviors that can impact a person’s health, including their smoking habits, diet, chronic conditions, and how much sleep they get. In the mix was this question, “On average, how many hours of sleep do you get in a 24-hour period?”

After crunching the data, the researchers discovered that sleep was the strongest predictor of life expectancy, even topping better-known factors like diet, physical activity, or social isolation. (Smoking was the only factor that was more influential than sleep.) Meaning, people who said they got the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep a night were more likely to outlive those who consistently got less than seven hours a night.

Why can sleep have such a big impact on your lifespan?

The researchers didn’t look into this—they just found a link between lack of sleep and a shorter lifespan. But sleep medicine physicians say it makes sense.

“Getting sufficient sleep is related to so many aspects of health, including cardiovascular health, our immune system, and even weight management and mood,” Beth Malow, MD, a neurologist and chief of the Division of Sleep Disorders at Vanderbilt Health, tells SELF. “That translates into the importance of sleep on our lifespan.”

Getting shorter sleep is usually linked to making worse behavioral choices (think: around your diet and exercise), which can influence how likely you are to develop certain diseases, Andrew W. McHill, PhD, study co-author and director of the Sleep, Chronobiology, and Health Laboratory at Oregon Health & Science University, tells SELF. “It really does highlight the importance of sleep among all other behaviors that we commonly think of being essential for health—the food we eat, the air we breathe, or how much we exercise,” he says.

There are a few major sleep traps doctors see.

Most people will experience the odd night where it’s hard to get enough sleep. Maybe you stayed out late with friends, got caught up in watching your favorite show, or couldn’t put down a good book—it happens. But then there are situations that are harder to control, like you’re working two jobs or you have a young child who isn’t sleeping well. Those are more complicated, points out Christopher Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast. “This is a different population than the insomnia population who often identify as ‘sleep deprived,’” he tells SELF.

But in people who have the option of going to bed on time and don’t, doctors say there are a few consistent factors that they see patients grappling with that get in the way of a good night’s sleep.

Your phone is messing you up. Dr. Malow flags doomscrolling at night as a big barrier to sleep. There are a few reasons why this is bad. Being on your phone in the evening exposes you to blue light, which suppresses your body’s natural production of the sleep hormone melatonin, she explains. “Plus, it’s content that stirs up our anger,” she adds. That can get you too revved up to sleep, even once you’ve put your phone down.
Your caffeine intake is too late. Sure, you’re probably not tossing back a latte at 8 p.m., but even an afternoon coffee can set you up for bad sleep. Caffeine takes about 30 minutes to take effect and has a half-life of five to six hours, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s why Dr. McHill recommends you stop having caffeine at least five hours before you plan to go to bed (and leaving yourself an even larger gap if you’re sensitive to the stimulant). So if you plan to go to bed at 9 p.m., you’ll ideally want to cut yourself off by 4 p.m. or earlier.
Alcohol is throwing you off. The alcohol-sleep connection is a little confusing, especially if you feel like you fall asleep easier after you drink. But while alcohol can make you feel drowsy at first, research has found that drinking before bed can delay REM sleep (the crucial fourth stage of sleep where most dreams happen). As a result, you can end up with more disrupted sleep than if you had skipped the alcohol. “Using sleep aids—melatonin, alcohol, marijuana—to fall asleep can actually degrade sleep quality,” Aarti Grover, MD, medical director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Tufts Medical Center, tells SELF.
You weren’t able to work out. Dr. Malow flags “limited exercise during the day” as a concern for sleep. Research repeatedly finds that people who get even moderate amounts of exercise during the day fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer compared to those who don’t move as much.
Your schedule is packed. “We give kids a hard time for being ‘overscheduled,’ but then the number of people who work full-time and have kids yet expect to have this rich and time-consuming life outside of those two endeavors always surprises me,” Dr. Winter says. When you factor in sleep and work, you only have so much time left, he points out. “We are only talking about a few hours a day to work with here, so I think unrealistic expectations of what you can accomplish in those hours leads many to bleed over into sleep time,” he says.
You’re sleeping in on the weekends. If you’re having trouble finding enough time for sleep, it only makes sense to try to catch up on the weekend. But “an inconsistent sleep schedule further disrupts internal circadian rhythm,” Dr. Grover says. Meaning, you can end up throwing your ability to get enough sleep off even more if you make this a habit.
Sleep just isn’t a priority. “We often fall into a mindset that you can ‘get by’ with less sleep and can use that time to do something ‘more productive’ or fun,” Dr. McHill says. “It is one of those things that we can really disregard as essential because we may not acutely see how chronic shorter sleep durations impair health. However, one of the greatest strategies to getting sufficient sleep is making sleep a priority in your day, similar to eating healthy or getting activity.”

When to talk to a healthcare professional

If you know you keep falling short on sleep because you’ve been late-night doomscrolling or can’t stop watching Stranger Things, there’s an easy fix. But sleep is complicated, and sometimes there isn’t an easy solution for why you’re struggling.

“If you are having difficulty getting sufficient sleep due to waking up early, or throughout the night, or have difficulty falling asleep, that’s the time to rope in a healthcare professional for help,” Dr. Malow says. You may be dealing with a health condition like sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome that need medication intervention to turn your sleep around, she says. Whatever is behind your lack of sleep, Dr. McHill says it’s important to take action. “It’s not something that you should put off or think will naturally get better, but something that needs to be a priority,” he says.