Although it is common to assume that becoming healthier means making drastic changes, such as engaging in intense training or surviving off green juices, studies reveal that a key factor in longevity may be the time spent in the bedroom. In particular, this involves what one does in the final few minutes before going to sleep. As reported in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a small tweak to one’s bedtime ritual may lead to greater benefits than anyone assumes.
In an age where it is fashionable to lead an extreme lifestyle, studies show that a slight modification in one’s daily routine may make a world of difference in terms of improving one’s overall cardiovascular wellbeing. Instead of changing everything at once, a person needs only to increase their sleeping time by a little to lower their risks of having heart attacks or suffering from strokes.
In order to understand how such small behaviors impact cardiovascular diseases, a study was conducted where data on health and lifestyle behaviors of over 50,000 adults in the UK were collected over an eight-year period. As noted by the authors of the study, it is one of the more detailed researches exploring the role of behaviors rather than genetic or other medical interventions in cardiovascular disease risks.
Participants in this study weren’t only asked whether they slept well or not; rather, they were rated based on their diets, physical activity level, smoking habits, and alcohol intake. The outcomes were remarkable: people who lived a healthy life had a 57% less chance of having heart attacks and strokes than those who did not follow healthy behaviors. While this result alone is enough to validate some traditional medical advice, the aspect that surprised the researchers the most was the benefit that even slight improvements might bring
