One sleep habit experts wish you would adopt

By Caroline Hopkins Legaspi

The New York Times

“How did you sleep?” You might answer that question by weighing how many hours you slept or how often you woke up throughout the night.

But there is a third, often neglected, element of sleep to consider, experts say. It’s the consistency of your sleep schedule.

Sleep consistency refers to how well you maintain the same bedtime and wake-up time, give or take 30 minutes — and that includes weekends, said Jean-Philippe Chaput, a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa in Ontario.

Research suggests that most adults in the United States do not have a consistent sleep schedule. And that may be harming their health, Chaput said.

What the research indicates

Much of the science on the link between inconsistent sleep and poor health is based on observational studies, which can’t prove cause and effect. Their results are also often restricted by various limitations (including if the study was performed on a small number of people, or on people of only certain ages, ethnicities or occupations). It’s also difficult to accurately track people’s sleep patterns over months or years, and some studies define sleep consistency in different ways.

Despite these limitations, scientists have found some patterns. Those who tend to deviate most from a consistent sleep schedule seem to be at higher risk...