Vita gazette—Prioritising sleep could make you feel younger. Research shows that people who get full sleep for one month feel six years younger.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden examined the relationship between adequate sleep, insomnia, and perceived age. How old someone feels, or their subjective age, has been associated with various physical and mental health outcomes, particularly depression. Prioritising sleep could make you feel younger, while not getting enough sleep may make you feel years older.

Given sleep’s importance for mental and physical health, Balter and John Axelsson at the Karolinska Institute decided to investigate whether it affects subjective age. The data obtained were evaluated according to the standard scale used in psychological research.

The pair enlisted 429 people—aged 18 to 70—to take a survey on how old they felt and how much they had slept in the past 30 days.

Within the scope of the research, in the first study conducted with 429 people aged 18-70, people were asked how many nights they did not get enough sleep in the last month and how old they felt on the days when they did not get enough sleep.

As a result of the first study, scientists reported that people felt three months older every day and did not get a whole night’s sleep, while those who got a full night’s sleep for the last month felt about six years younger.

The second study examined how 186 volunteers aged 18-46 felt when they slept 4 hours for two consecutive days. As a result of the examinations, it was determined that the volunteers who slept only 4 hours for two straight days felt approximately 4.5 years older.