A Stockholm University and Karolinska Institute survey of 38,000 adults shows that people getting five hours of sleep or less a night have a 65 percent higher mortality rate than those that consistently get 6–8. But that weekend sleep-in seems to cancel out the mortality risk: People who only got a few hours of sleep during the week, but then had a regular long weekend snooze, had no greater risk of early death than those people that consistently slept 6–8 hours a night. The researchers’ conclusion: “Sleep duration is important for longevity.”
