When it comes to our survival, quality sleep is as important as food and water, but how many of us get enough of it? With more than 16% of the world’s population dealing with insomnia, people certainly sleep less, but they can also sleep too much, which can accelerate the aging of almost all of their organs.
Biological aging and sleep
“Sleep is fundamental to healthy aging and longevity. Most importantly, it can be changed.” explains Junhao WenPhD, Assistant Professor of Radiological Sciences, Columbia University.
Unlike chronological aging, which measures your time on earth, biological aging refers to how fast your cells and tissues age, and if they age too quickly, you increase your risk of chronic disease. One of the factors that can influence biological aging is sleep, and in a recent study, Wen and his team measured biological aging clocks in all organs to correlate these clocks with sleep duration.
“Everyone is excited about these aging clocks and their ability to predict the risk of disease and death.” Wen says “But to me, the more interesting question is, can we change the aging clock with a lifestyle factor that can be changed over time to slow aging?”
Not only is sleep important for longevity, Wen also adds that he is a light sleeper and was concerned about its effects on his health.
Old age clock
To create the aging clock, Wen analyzed data collected from nearly 500,000 participants aged 37 to 84 who reported how long they slept each night. Wen and his team then compared the sleep data with the participants’ biological age.
To determine biological age, researchers used 23 different aging clocks, each tuned to a specific organ system or data type, including the brain, lungs, liver, immune system, skin, heart, pancreas, adipose tissue, and more.
“For example, in the liver we have an aging clock built with protein data, an aging clock with metabolic data, and an aging clock with imaging data,” Wen explains, “This allows us to understand whether sleep is related to the aging clock at multiple, molecular levels.”
The team also assessed whether sleeping longer or shorter was associated with early death and morbidity.
Sleeping more or less causes the body to age
“Our research goes further and shows that both too little and too much sleep is associated with faster aging in all organs, supporting the idea that sleep is important in maintaining organ health in a coordinated brain-body network, including metabolic balance and a healthy immune system.” – study leader Junhao Wen
According to the conclusions to readpublished Nature9 out of 23 hours showed that both short and long sleep were associated with higher biological age intervals compared to people who slept the usual amount.
According to the information, it is calculated among the usual amount 6.4 and 7.8 hours per night, although the range varies depending on the organ measured and the gender of the individual.
Sleeping very little
Research has defined short sleep as less than 6 hours and found that it is associated with:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Hypertension
- Arrhythmia
- Asthma
- Obesity
- Kidney disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Back pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Substance use disorder
Sleeping too much
Long sleepers, defined as more than eight hours of sleep, are associated with greater brain risks than short sleepers and include:
- The main problem of depression
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar disorder
- ADHD
As for the risk of death, both short and long sleepers faced an increased risk of death, with short sleepers having a 50% increased risk and long sleepers having a 40% increased risk.
Changing the way we sleep
Despite the findings, the researchers reiterated that sleep duration was self-reported. Also, the study does not rule out the possibility of underlying diseases that cause sleep disturbances.
However, an analysis designed to detect direct genetic causes did not find enough evidence that this disease can cause abnormal sleep patterns, so researchers assume that our sleep duration is mainly influenced by environmental factors and is therefore variable.
With that said, here are some sleep tips to improve your sleep habits and protect your biological age:
- Do not eat or exercise after 19:00
- Stick to a consistent bedtime—even on weekends
- Track your sleep to identify patterns, not diagnoses
- Have a rest routine: 30-60 minutes before bed, relax and have some screen time
Want to learn more?
To help us prioritize our sleep, Discovery, a global financial services company founded in 1992 by Adrian Gore in South Africa, released a video. a report that helps us sleep better.
Quotes
Benjafield, A.W., Sert Kuniyoshi, F.H., Malhotra, A., Martin, J.L., et al. (2025). Estimating the Global Prevalence and Burden of Insomnia: A Systematic Analysis Based on a Literature Review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 82102121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2025.102121
Keith, S., Song, Z., Anagnostakis, F., Yang, Z., et al. (2026). Sleep schedule of biological aging in midlife and late life. Nature1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10524-5
