Just five more minutes of sleep can help add one more year to your life: Study

Just five more minutes of sleep and two minutes of moderate exercise like brisk walking or climbing stairs can add a year to your life according to a study on WednesdayAdding half a serving of vegetables per day more could also lead to an extra year of life for people with the worst existing sleep physical activity and dietary habits revealed the study that followed 60000 people for eight long yearsThe study published in The Lancet journal eClinicalMedicine suggested that seven to eight hours of sleep per day more than 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day and a healthy diet were associated with over nine years of additional lifespan and years spent in good healthldquoThe combined relationship of sleep physical activity and diet is larger than the sum of the individual behaviours For example for people with the unhealthiest sleep physical activity and dietary habits to achieve one additional year of lifespan through sleep alone would require five times the amount of additional sleep per day 25 minutes than if physical activity and diet also improved a small amountrdquo said the international group of researchers from the UK Australia Chile and BrazilIn a separate study published in the journal The Lancet researchers from Norway Spain and Australia showed that adding just 5 minutes of extra walking to the daily routine can cut down the risk of death in the majority of adults by 10 per centIt will also help the least active adults to reduce their risk of death by around 6 per centFurther the study based on data from more than 135000 adults found that reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes per day was associated with an estimated 7 per cent reduction in all deaths if adopted by the majority of adults who spend 10 hours being sedentary per dayAround 3 per cent of all deaths can be reduced if adopted by the most sedentary adults who spend 12 hours being sedentary per day on averageldquoThese estimates provide important evidence on the wide range of public health impacts associated with even small positive changes in physical activity and inactivityrdquo said corresponding author Prof Ulf Ekelund from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences OsloThe researchers cautioned that the findings should not be used as personalised advice rather they highlighted the potential benefits for the population as a wholeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever