Sleep is the foundation upon which every other longevity intervention is built — and it is the one most commonly sacrificed. Adults sleeping fewer than 6 hours per night have a 13% higher all-cause mortality rate. Sleep deprivation impairs glucose metabolism within days, elevates inflammatory markers, accelerates epigenetic aging, and reduces the glymphatic clearance of amyloid beta — the protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
This category covers sleep science as a longevity intervention. We examine the evidence for optimal sleep duration (the U-shaped mortality curve peaks at 7-8 hours), sleep architecture (why deep sleep and REM serve different restorative functions), circadian biology (how light exposure, meal timing, and temperature regulate your internal clock), and the supplements and behavioral strategies with genuine evidence for sleep quality improvement. We also cover melatonin — both as a sleep aid and as a potent antioxidant with emerging longevity relevance — and the practical question of how to optimize sleep in a modern environment that actively works against it.