A quarter of adults in the United States don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. If you’re one of them, you’ll know how terrible you feel after too few hours of shuteye – groggy, headachy and irritable. It turns out that the long-term consequences of too few z’s go way beyond that, making sleep one of the most important things you can do to keep your body in tip-top shape. In this article, learn how getting enough sleep can lead to long life – and how not getting enough can lead to dire health consequences.
Long-term, insufficient sleep starts to look like something you really want to avoid. Studies have shown that long-term sleep deprivation can lead to high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues like heart failure and heart attack, depression, and even obesity.
What’s more? A 2010 study found that older adults who didn’t get enough sleep were more likely to die from any cause over the course of the study than adults who did get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep can have a huge effect on your longevity, which is unfortunately not something that an extra cup of coffee in the morning can fix.