I write a lot about health and wellness. I’ve covered study after study about the importance of sleep. I know all the research, I understand the stakes.
Yet, I’m terrible at actually getting enough sleep myself. In fact, I just went back and counted the sheer number of times I’ve made reference in this newsletter to the idea of writing it late at night.
Let’s just say there are more than a few. Like here, here, here, and here.
I know I’m not alone. Hence, why a massive new study from Oregon Health & Science University hit me like a splash of cold water.
The findings: Insufficient sleep is one of the strongest negative predictors of how long you’ll live—more than insufficient diet or exercise, loneliness, unemployment or education level. It’s second only to smoking.
Literally every county in America
Researchers analyzed data from all 3,143 U.S. counties over six years, from 2019 to 2025, comparing how much sleep people reported getting with average life expectancy in each county.
They used CDC survey data and controlled for all the usual suspects: smoking, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity, diet, even access to healthcare.
Across income levels and geographic boundaries, the correlation was clear: Counties where more people slept fewer than seven hours a night had shorter life expectancies.
Andrew McHill, Ph.D., who led the study as an associate professor at OHSU, said he was surprised by the sharpness of the findings.
“I didn’t expect it to be so strongly correlated to life expectancy,” McHill said. “We’ve always thought sleep is important, but this research really drives that point home: People really should strive to get seven to nine hours of sleep if at all possible.”
Sleep matters more
Think about how much emphasis we put on eating right and working out—both important, both things I’ve written about countless times. But according to this study, sleep matters more.
“It’s intuitive and makes a lot of sense, but it was still striking to see it materialize so strongly in all of these models,” McHill said. “I’m a sleep physiologist who understands the health benefits of sleep, but the strength of the association between sleep sufficiency and life expectancy was remarkable to me.”
An outside expert put it even more bluntly. “Sleep is a biological reset for nearly every system in the body,” said Michael Howell, MD, a sleep medicine physician and chief medical officer at GEM Sleep. “Chronic sleep deprivation leads to ongoing stress, inflammation and metabolic disruption, which over time increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, depression and neurodegenerative disease.”
Pick three.
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage, I admit, quoting my colleague Jessica Stillman’s pithy article from years ago about the so-called entrepreneur’s dilemma: Work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends: Pick three.
But even though sleep often feels like the easiest, lightest thing we can borrow from, something has to give.
As McHill put it: “We think of sleep as something that may not be as important—’I’ll get it tomorrow, or I can wait till the weekend to catch up on it’—but it really needs to be something that we prioritize on a daily basis.”
The study looked at neighboring counties and found stark differences.
In some cases, a county where 40% of residents slept fewer than seven hours sat right next to a county where only 25% did—and the life expectancy gap was several years.
Of course, that doesn’t mean less sleep actually causes shorter life expectancies; people who sleep less might also be more stressed, have less healthy diets, or be more likely to have fatal accidents.
But even if we can’t prove causation, the correlation is compelling, and it’s hard to ignore.
Take it to heart.
Reading this research, I can’t pretend anymore. I can’t keep being the expert who doesn’t follow his own advice. Seven to nine hours isn’t a luxury, or a nice-to-have.
So I’m taking this one to heart. Heck, I’m even finishing this newsletter at the comparatively reasonable time of 8:20 p.m. Small victories, people!
Still, if you’re like me—sacrificing sleep to get everything done, telling yourself you’ll make it up later—well, maybe it’s time we both listened.
It’s not that sacrifice isn’t worth it; it’s that sacrificing your lifespan might not be.
A few other things worth the time to read them
After creating thousands of “undressing” pictures of women and sexualized imagery of apparent minors, Elon Musk’s X has limited who can generate images with Grok. Grok’s account on X started telling users who requested editing that only “paying subscribers” can do so, and advertising a $395 annual subscription tier. (Wired)
A blunt column in Canada’s largest national newspaper went viral warning of the possibility that President Donald Trump may use “military coercion” against the country. The authors’ advice: Learn from Finland’s defenses against Russia. Expand the civil defense force. Build a national drone strategy, inspired by Ukraine’s example. And think about the unthinkable. (Bloomberg)
A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, equal shares of U.S. adults — 27% each — identified as either Democrats or Republicans. When pressed, slightly more political independents said they lean toward the Democratic Party than the Republican Party (20% to 15%). (Gallup)
How IVF has led to a record number of single moms in their 40s. (NPR)
Self-mutilation and crystal meth: The ‘Chad mindset’ enticing MAGA’s young men. (The Telegraph)
AI-generated images are complicating efforts to find and capture monkeys on the loose in St Louis. The problem: People keep reporting that the’ve seen or captured the monkeys, posting fake AI-generated pictures online to bolster their claims. (The Independent)
Thanks for reading. Photo by Greg Pappas on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
Does it matter if the 7-9 hours are, say, 1am to 8am? 12-8,9? If okay, then I am compliant. I'm only 81, so there's time to test this theory.
Amen and YES to improving our sleep, both in quality as well as duration. Science provides us a mostly all excellent means, in multiple ways, to take far better control and care of our minds and bodies throughout our lifetimes. Atomic Habits, James Clear, is an excellent guide to both recognizing, as well as correcting for poor sleep habits, as well as other less desirable ones. You know the list. Atomic is the operative word in Clear's title. Find out why. Thank you for this work you do Bill. Not a steady reader, but always find your work useful in some of life's corners. Finding a little more gratitude every day, and finding I have enough stuff is quite enough for me. Pity those living in greed. Peace will always elude them. Sleep on that! You do nice work Bill. Jim