Good Sleep and Healthy Diet Linked to Longevity

An international study says that longevity is linked to good sleep and a healthy diet.

The study, conducted by researchers at Monash University, linked a good sleeping pattern with increased life expectancy in men. In women, however, eating habits were also a key factor along with good sleep to boost life span.

The study claims that women who consume a Vitamin B6-enriched diet sleep well and live longer and for men sleeping habits play a more critical role.

The study also included researchers from the National Defense Medical Centre, Taiwan, and the National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan. The main motive of this study was to examine how diet affects quality of sleep and mortality among elderly people.

"Poor sleep has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease," Professor Mark Wahlqvist from Monash University's Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, said in a news release. "We found that for both genders, poor sleep was strongly correlated with poor appetite and poor perceived health."

The study was conducted on 1865 elderly men and women who were a part of the Nutrition and Health survey in Taiwan. The data was collected from 1999-2000.

The researchers noticed that for both men and women, poor sleep was strongly related with poor appetite and poor perceived health.

Poor sleeping patterns were further linked with high risk of contracting chronic diseases like coronary heart conditions, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.

"There was significant interaction between sleep quality and dietary diversity. For men, poor sleep was not associated with a greater risk of death unless there was also insufficient dietary diversity. For women, good sleep only provides a survival advantage if they had a diverse diet," Professor Walhqvist explains.

The researchers observed that people with bad sleeping patterns were less active, had a poor appetite, and couldn't chew food well. This led to lower dietary quality and low intake of nutrition, especially sources rich in vitamin B6.

Also, women were two times more likely than men to have bad sleeping patterns.

Researchers suggest that both men and women can enhance their health outlook by consuming a more varied diet. With a diverse diet, men can balance the effect of mortality linked to poor sleep whereas women must consume a healthy diet high in vitamin B6 to improve longevity. 

Vitamin B6 can be found in meat, bananas, nuts, garlic, pistachios and vegetables.

Sleep is important for a person's health and well-being. It is not just the quantity but also the quality of sleep that matters. It is a key to a healthy lifestyle. A recent study revealed how sub optimal sleep activates depression genes in a person. 

Another study revealed that high levels of melatonin, the sleep hormone, lowered the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer.

The study was documented in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.