A study conducted by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that chronic sleep deprivation reduces average life expectancy more significantly than unemployment or lack of health insurance. A large-scale analysis of data from all U.S. counties revealed that insufficient sleep ranks as the second most significant behavioral risk factor for premature death, surpassed only by smoking.

The Impact of Sleep on Longevity

The relationship between sleep duration and lifespan has been studied for a long time. It is well established that disruptions in circadian rhythms increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and weaken the immune system. However, previous research mainly focused on individual cases of illness and lacked sufficient data to assess how systemic this problem is for entire regions, or whether the effect persists when factors like poverty and social inequality are excluded.

Study Methodology

The authors analyzed statistics from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for the years 2019–2025, covering 3,143 U.S. counties. They compared the proportion of residents sleeping less than seven hours per night with official data on average life expectancy in each area. Using mathematical modeling, they were able to isolate the impact of sleep by excluding factors such as income level, education, access to healthcare, and unemployment from the equation.

Hierarchy of Health Threats

The results revealed a clear hierarchy of health threats. The researchers calculated specific coefficients reflecting the "weight" of each harmful habit. If the negative impact of smoking is taken as a benchmark (coefficient –0.31), the harm from chronic sleep deprivation amounted to more than half of that value (–0.17). This makes sleep deficiency a more dangerous factor than physical inactivity or social isolation.

Mechanisms of Sleep Deprivation's Impact

Further analysis helped uncover the mechanisms behind this effect. When accounting for disease data, the "pure" sleep deprivation coefficient decreased but remained significant. This suggests that lack of sleep often acts indirectly: it contributes to the development of obesity and diabetes, which in turn shorten lifespan.

Thus, chronic sleep deprivation is one of the key factors affecting life expectancy, and its impact is comparable to such serious threats as smoking.