Just a couple of nights of poor sleep can make you feel years older

About the episode

Feeling younger has been linked in studies to a healthier, longer life. For example, the brain will show fewer signs of aging in people who feel much younger than their biological age.

Researchers from Stockholm University were interested in whether sleep quality also has a link to that youthful feeling that seems to be so good to us. Because what is already known is that sleep is very important for the brain and the rest of the body.

After one experiment, in which people slept only 4 hours for two nights, they saw that the participants felt on average 4.4 years older than they did after those two bad nights.

This old feeling can be linked to how sleepy these people are. If they are super alert, they feel about 4 years younger than they actually were. If they are very tired, they feel 6 years older. So there is no less than 10 years between them.

Also interesting: Evening people felt older on average than morning people. Even after getting enough sleep. While morning people on average suffer more from poor sleep at night.

However, such a study always has limitations. It is a conceptual study, a snapshot, and a limited set. But if feeling young and alert actually has a positive effect on our bodies, and lack of sleep makes us feel old, you could say: another reason to closely monitor the quality of your sleep.

Read more about the research here: A study found that two nights of interrupted sleep can make people feel years older