It's enough to not sleep well for 2 nights to feel a few years older, according to Swedish researchers, who point out that good, restful sleep is a key factor in helping the aging process and energy.
Psychologists in Sweden found that, on average, the volunteers who took part in the study felt at least 4 years older after sleeping only 4 hours for 2 nights. Some of them said that insomnia made them feel decades older.
The opposite happened to people who were allowed to sleep for 9 hours in a comfortable bed. They stated that they felt 3 months younger than their real age.
"Sleep has a big impact on how you feel about age," said Dr. Leonie Balter, psychologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, emphasizing that: "Even when you sleep less for just 2 nights, you experience a big change in the way you feel."
Beyond simply feeling powerless and lacking energy, the perception of being years older than you really are can affect people's health, encouraging them to eat unhealthy, reduce exercise, and making people less willing to socialize and engage in new experiences.
Researchers conducted 2 studies:
In the first , 429 people aged 18-70 answered questions about how old they felt and how many nights they had slept poorly during these months. Their sleepiness was rated according to a standard scale used in psychological research.
For each day of disturbed sleep, the volunteers felt an average of 3 months older, the scientists found, while those who reported no nights of disturbed sleep felt almost 6 years younger than their actual age. However, it was unclear whether disturbed sleep made people feel older, or the other way around.
In the second study , researchers questioned 186 volunteers, ages 18-46, and asked them how old they felt after 2 nights of full, restful sleep, where they stayed in bed for 9 hours. Then, they underwent the test of a disturbed sleep for 2 nights. After 2 such nights, participants felt an average of 4.44 years older than on nights when they got enough sleep. Surprisingly, it doesn't matter how old you are, it's how good/disturbed you feel when you sleep.
"If you want to feel younger, the most important thing you can do is protect your sleep," Balter said. "If we can make people feel younger, they may be able to have other benefits, such as being more willing to take on new experiences and be socially and physically active." , Balter added.
Dr. Serena Sabatini, a psychologist at the University of Surrey who was not involved in the study, said the results are promising, but research should focus more on older people, who may be a priority in future studies.
"This study tells us that a bad night's sleep can affect how we feel the next day, but what are the cumulative effects of bad sleep over months and years?" she asked.
Dr Iuliana Hartescu, lecturer in psychology at Loughborough University, who was also not involved in the study, said insufficient or poor sleep quality was important for lifestyle behaviors that ultimately affect health. long term.
"Sleep is a modifiable behavior that has an immediate and visible effect on health," she said. "The effects of poor diet and low physical activity take a while to be noticed. The effect of a poor night's sleep is immediate and affects all other 24-hour lifestyle behaviors."
So when celebrities say they don't sacrifice sleep for anything, believe them, because they know something.
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