Question

Unhealthy sleep habits lead to shorter lives

Comments

Hi! I really appreciate your factchecking of your claim "Unhealthy sleep habits lead to shorter lives". Your argument can be improved if you included facts about the claim  within the text box. I am unsure where you stand with this claim!

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This claim is one that's talked about a lot. But, if you had put more information about what the article is about or more detailed of a claim, then there would be a better grasp of what the perspective is.

Answer 1

This is an interesting one. Digging into the Finnish study that they site in the article I found out that the study was conducted from 1981 - 2018 so 37 years. In that time they followed people of all types and had around 8,500 participants. By the end they had discovered that the people who went to sleep the latest also drank/smoked the most which was the primary cause of death in these people. 

"The model adjusted for all covariates showed a 9% increase in risk of all-cause mortality for the evening-type group (1.09, 1.01–1.18), with attenuation mainly due to smoking and alcohol, as they had larger consumption than those with morningness chronotypes. We observed no increase in cardiovascular mortality by chronotype. No increase in mortality was seen among the non-smokers who were at most light drinkers."

Chronotype and mortality - a 37-year follow-up study in Finnish adults

They say that there was little correlation that it was just going to bed late that caused their death. So I believe that article you provided takes this out of context and is exaggerated to shock readers.

Comments

Your answer offers rather good background, particularly when you properly review the original Finnish research. It's interesting to note that rather than just sleeping late, the main risk factors for death were linked to lifestyle decisions like smoking and drinking. This is a perfect illustration of how sometimes media coverage simplifies or even exaggerates research results to appeal more.

I agree that here it's crucial to separate causality from correlation. The research you mentioned points to the related habits that could be more typical among night owls rather than the act of sleeping late directly affecting mortality. In this research, lifestyle choices seemed to be the actual causes of health hazards rather than just sleep patterns.

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This answer includes a good breakdown on the difference between correlation and causation, the article claims that the mortality ratio was adjusted to account for drug use, alcohol use and body mass, but a quick look at the actual results of the paper show that sleep chronotype has no effect on mortality rate, but habits do. While sleep deprivation is a totally different story when it comes to mortality, going to bed late doesn't seem to be much different from going to bed early, as long as you are sleeping enough.

Answer 2

It would honestly not be too shocking for a claim like this to be true. We learn that for our bodies to function properly it is important to get enough sleep, but that shouldn't mean that you should agree with a claim just because. It becomes misleading when a claim that being a night owl can lead to a shorter life expectancy, especially when the original article linked then adds that this claim had more to do with late night activities than solely the factor of staying up late. The factors that seemed to actually play a role in this idea of shorter lives involved the use of tobacco and alcohol which have been proven time and time again to negatively impact humans long-term. With that being said, it is evident that this claim wasn't solely based on one being a night owl, it more so had to do with the activities that can sometimes be associated with staying up at late hours of the night. I also looked at a link that was left in a previous answer about a Finnish study that was done which made the necessary adjustments for those who did partake in these "late night activities" yet came to the conclusion that there was little to no correlation seen between when you go to sleep and one's life expectancy. The additional article I looked at did still make the claim that a lack of sleep could affect how long you live, but when exploring this article, nothing pointed a finger towards a shorter life. It focused more on why sleep was important, not evidence to prove the headline claim. 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07420528.2023.2215342 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/16/health/night-owl-early-death-wellness/index.html

https://www.cnet.com/health/sleep/not-sleeping-enough-it-could-affect-how-long-you-live/