The key to living longer could be under your duvet.
According to one expert, getting 15 minutes of extra sleep per night is a minor lifestyle tweak you can make to slash your risk of an early death.
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, a physical exercise researcher, told The Independent that if you slightly change three areas of your life simultaneously, it can significantly change your life expectancy.
His team, who are based at the University of Sydney looked at data from 60,000 people over a period of eight years, noting how long they sleep, the minutes they spend exercising and their diet quality score (DQS).
The DQS score, which is marked out of 100, is based on intake of vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy products, whole grains, vegetable oils, refined grains, processed meats, and unprocessed meats.
Previously a study found one in seven Britons survive on less than five hours of sleep—far below the NHS recommended seven to nine hours.
Prof Stamatakis’ team found if you sleep five-and-a-half hours, only exercise for 7.3 minutes a day and your DQS score is 36.9, minor tweaks can significantly lower your mortality risk.
Sleeping an extra 15 minutes, exercising for 1.6 minutes more and eating an extra half a serving of vegetables a day—or one less serving of processed meat a week—could lower your risk of death by 10 per cent.
Experts have revealed minor tweaks you can make that can slash some people’s risk of an early death by 10 per cent
If you go further, sleeping for an extra 75 minutes a day, spend 12.5 minutes a day doing moderate-vigorous exercise, and raise your DQS score by 25 points to 61.9, your risk of death is slashed by a half.
Examples of moderate-vigorous exercise include swimming, running, power walking, water aerobics, double tennis, dance, and cycling.
Half a portion of vegetables can be a broccoli spear, a tablespoon of cooked spinach, a heaped teaspoon of cooked kale, 2.5cm of cucumber or half a medium tomato.
Meanwhile, processed meats that you can cut out include bacon, sausages ham, hot dogs, salami, corned beef, and spam.
Other research has linked highly processed food to obesity, heart disease, colorectal and breast cancers, diabetes, and dementia.
Similarly, studies have shown not getting enough sleep for a long time raises your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and a stroke.
The ideal ‘optimal combination’, the Australia researchers found was 7.2 to eight hours of sleep, 42 to 103 minutes of moderate-vigorous exercise and a high DQS.
In the journal, BMC Medicine, the Australian researchers said changes in these three areas—SPAN, which stands for sleep, physical activity and sleep—work best in harmony.
Professor Stamatakis said: ‘We want to lower the bar of participation and lower the bar of getting movement.
‘It’s about giving options to the 80 or 85 per cent of the population who are not keen on doing regular, structured exercise.’
These steps, he explained are ‘not an optimal fitness solution’ which would require ‘structured exercise’ and ‘major commitments’.
But their findings provide practical steps people can take, which is vital, he explained, because inactive people ‘are at the highest risk of chronic disease’.
‘These are accessible and manageable changes that can make a difference in people incorporating them, ideally simultaneously into their lives in the long term,’ he said.
Dr Nicholas Koemel, of the same university, added: ‘We’re talking about a couple of minutes of extra MVPA, combined with 15 extra minutes of sleep and between half and one extra portion of fruits and vegetables, or analogous improvements across other aspects of our diet.
‘It’s the synergistic and combined power of small changes. This is what the SPAN stream of work is looking into: trying to understand the potential of these interventions.’
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