Too Little or Too Much Sleep Linked to Faster Ageing
Key Developments:
- Short and long sleep linked to faster biological ageing.
- Researchers found the lowest ageing levels at 6.4–7.8 hours.
NEW YORK (ScienceDaily) — August 25, 2026: Sleeping too little or too much may be associated with faster biological ageing across multiple organs, according to a new analysis involving data from about half a million UK Biobank participants.
The study, led by researchers including Junhao Wen of Columbia University, examined the relationship between sleep duration and 23 biological ageing clocks covering 17 organ systems. The researchers used information from medical imaging, blood proteins and metabolites to estimate biological ageing across different parts of the body.
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The findings showed a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and biological ageing. People who reported sleeping fewer than six hours or more than eight hours per day generally showed greater biological age gaps, while the lowest levels of ageing were observed among participants reporting approximately 6.4 to 7.8 hours of sleep.
Wen said the research expands on earlier work examining the relationship between sleep and ageing.
“Our study goes further and shows that too little and too much sleep are associated with faster aging in nearly every organ,” Wen said.
He added that the findings support the importance of sleep in maintaining coordinated functions across the brain and body.
Too few and too many hours of sleep may speed aging in the brain, heart, lung, and immune system and is associated with a wide range of diseases.
The researchers developed ageing clocks using several types of biological information. These included structural measurements from medical imaging, proteins associated with particular organs and molecules detected in blood. The resulting models allowed the team to examine biological ageing at a more detailed, organ-specific level.
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Wen said the broader objective was to determine whether a modifiable lifestyle factor such as sleep could be connected with biological ageing.
“Everyone is excited by these aging clocks and their ability to predict disease and mortality risk,” Wen said. “But to me, the more exciting question is, can we link aging clocks to a lifestyle factor that can be modified in time to slow aging?”
The analysis also found associations between shorter sleep and several health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias. Both shorter and longer sleep were associated with conditions affecting the lungs and digestive system.
The researchers also examined the relationship between sleep duration, biological ageing and late-life depression. Their analysis suggested that short and long sleep may be associated with depression through different biological pathways. However, the researchers cautioned that the study could not establish whether abnormal sleep duration causes depression or whether depression influences sleeping patterns.
Routinely sleeping beyond eight hours a night could signal an underlying condition. CREDIT: Olga Rolenko / Getty Images.
Importantly, the study does not establish that sleeping six or eight hours causes organs to age faster or slower. The researchers observed associations in observational data, meaning other health or lifestyle factors may contribute to the relationships.
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The study analysed participants aged 37 to 84 from the UK Biobank, and the researchers noted that the sleep range associated with the lowest biological age varied according to organ and sex.
The underlying research, titled Sleep chart of biological ageing clocks in middle and late life, was published in Nature. A correction to the paper was subsequently published on July 30, 2026, with an issue date of August 20.
The researchers say the findings provide evidence that sleep duration is connected with biological ageing across the body rather than being linked only to brain health.
For individuals, the findings reinforce the importance of maintaining healthy and consistent sleep habits, while persistent problems with either insufficient or excessive sleep may warrant discussion with a healthcare professional. The study’s 6.4–7.8-hour range should be viewed as a research finding rather than a universal target, since individual sleep requirements can vary.
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