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5 Extra Sleep Minutes, 2-Minute Walk Can Add a Year to Your Life

A major study tracking 60,000 people for eight years found that minor positive changes in daily habits can significantly extend lifespan. Adding just five minutes of sleep and two minutes of moderate exercise like brisk walking could add a year to a person's life. The research emphasizes that the combined benefit of improving sleep, activity, and diet together is greater than improving each one individually. A separate analysis also concluded that reducing daily sedentary time by 30 minutes is associated with a notable reduction in mortality risk.

Key Points: Small Lifestyle Changes Add Years to Life, Study Finds

  • 5 min extra sleep adds life
  • 2 min brisk walk boosts longevity
  • Diet, sleep, exercise synergy powerful
  • Reducing sedentary time cuts death risk
  • Small changes have major population impact
2 min read

Extra 5 minutes of sleep, 2 minutes of brisk walking can add 1 year to your life: Study

New research reveals adding 5 minutes of sleep and 2 minutes of brisk walking daily can extend lifespan by a year. Learn the simple swaps.

"The combined relationship of sleep, physical activity, and diet is larger than the sum of the individual behaviours. - International Researchers"

New Delhi, Jan 14

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 Wednesday.

Adding 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 60,000 people for eight long years.

The 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 health.

"The 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 amount," said the international group of researchers from the UK, Australia, Chile, and Brazil.

In 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 cent.

It will also help the least active adults to reduce their risk of death by around 6 per cent.

Further, the study based on data from more than 135,000 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 day).

Around 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 average).

"These estimates provide important evidence on the wide range of public health impacts associated with even small positive changes in physical activity and inactivity," said corresponding author Prof Ulf Ekelund, from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo.

The researchers cautioned that the findings should not be used as personalised advice; rather, they highlighted the potential benefits for the population as a whole.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

R
Rohit P
Good to see research backing up what our grandparents always said - early to bed and a little movement is key. But let's be real, with Delhi's traffic and work pressure, getting 7-8 hours sleep is a luxury for many. The study is right, but the solution needs to address our stressful lifestyles too.
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Aman W
The part about adding half a serving of vegetables is crucial. Our traditional Indian diets were so balanced with sabzi, dal, roti. Now with more processed food, we've lost that. Time to go back to basics! 🥦
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Sarah B
As someone who works from home in Bangalore, I can vouch for the sedentary time warning. It's so easy to sit for 10+ hours. Setting a timer to walk for 2 minutes every hour seems like a great, manageable hack. Small steps lead to big changes!
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Vikram M
While the study is interesting, I appreciate that they caution against using it as personalized advice. Health is complex. But as a general public health message for India, it's spot on. We need more parks and walking spaces in our cities to make this easier for everyone.
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Kavya N
My mother always says "thoda sa walk karlo" after dinner. Science is finally catching up to Indian motherly wisdom! 😄 This is motivating. Instead of feeling guilty about not doing a full workout, I'll focus on these small, consistent habits.

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