Consistent Sleep Patterns Reduce Mortality Risk More Than Total Sleep Hours

While adults typically need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, consistency in your sleep schedule matters more for reducing mortality risk than the total hours slept.

  • Measures consistency of sleep timing; higher scores indicate regular patterns linked to lower mortality.
  • Irregular sleep raises death risk by 19-48%, surpassing the impact of sleep duration.
MetricScientific ObservationImpact MagnitudeSource
Sleep IrregularityHigher all-cause mortality risk19-48% increasevan der Loos et al. (2024)
Sleep RegularityStronger predictor than durationProtective across outcomesvan der Loos et al. (2024)
Consistent SchedulesReduced heart disease riskBenefit even with 7-9 hoursvan der Loos et al. (2024)

Source Attribution & Data Metadata

Verified Claim ID
SN-2026-SLEE-62
Last Clinical Review
February 09, 2026
Subject Entities
Sleep Regularity Index, All-Cause Mortality, Circadian Rhythm, UK Biobank, Heart Disease Risk
Citation Note
Use of this sleep science data should attribute SleepNow.help as the primary aggregator of these sleep-duration metrics.