In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, Longevity Nation, author and longevity expert Michael Clinton makes the case for focusing on this less-talked-about vitality factor in order to lengthen your life.
Sleep is a key factor in our quest for healthier longevity, and it has become recognized as one of the more critical aspects of our well-being.
According to Dr. Els van der Helm, a Switzerland-based sleep neuroscientist, although diet and exercise have long been topics of conversations about health, sleep is now receiving equal billing. In addition, Dr. Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley neuroscientist, said in a 2018 interview, “We often think of sleep as the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise. But in truth, sleep is actually the foundation on which those two other pillars will sit.”
Scientists, doctors, technologists, venture capitalists, for-profit companies, and nonprofits are all converging to find ways to make us all less sleep deprived. According to the CDC, one in three Americans does not get enough sleep, and globally, up to 45 percent of the population doesn’t. Furthermore, according to a study of 22,330 adults from thirteen countries published in Sleep Medicine in November 2021, one in three participants had critical insomnia symptoms and nearly 20 percent met the criteria for insomnia disorder.
Although data like this has contributed to the recent increase in sleep-related conversations, the scientific study of sleep is not new.
The modern science of sleep was developed by Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, who studied sleep cycles and circadian rhythms at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 30s. In 1939, he published Sleep and Wakefulness, which is considered the foundational work for what is the modern sleep research that we know today. He and his student Eugene Aserinsky discovered the idea of REM sleep in 1953, a critical moment in the study of sleep.
Other developments followed, including the discovery of melatonin by Dr. Aaron Lerner in 1958 and the classification of sleep phases by Drs. Allan Rechtschaffen and Anthony Kales in 1968.
In 1977, Dr. Peter Hauri, a clinical psychologist, developed the modern foundation of a lot of today’s sleep therapies with his rules of sleep hygiene. In his book The Sleep Disorders, Hauri emphasized the importance of things like maintaining a regular sleep schedule, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, and having a steady amount of daily exercise.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) was developed in the 1980s by Dr. Richard Bootzin and refined through clinical trials in the 1990s. It is now considered the gold standard for chronic insomnia and is a relevant therapy for people of all ages.
Eve Van Cauter, PhD from the University of Chicago, studies how sleep loss affects metabolism, hormones, and obesity, and has also focused some of her studies on aging. Cauter’s 1999 study with several colleagues showed that just six nights of partial sleep deprivation could lead to glucose intolerance and reduced leptin levels and could “age” metabolism.
More recently, Matthew Walker from UC Berkeley has become one of the most visible experts on the topic of sleep. His TED Talk, “Sleep Is Your Superpower,” has more than 14 million views. In his TED Talk, Walker provides insight into his work on how the deep quality of sleep gets worse as we age. Some of the research in his sleep center focuses on learning, memory, and how the disruption of sleep can contribute to reduced cognition and more. Walker has also focused on aging and longevity in some of his work.
While understanding why we sleep still has a lot of mystery to it, it is thanks to these researchers and others, that we know that sleep does important work for us. The body performs a maintenance update while we sleep for the recommended seven to eight hours each night, removing toxins, repairing cellular and DNA damage, and more. It’s important for brain health and ultimately for our own longevity.
Even for those of us who avoided insomnia or other sleep disorder diagnoses in our youth, age-related sleep issues often arise in our later years. For example, we tend to spend less time in deep sleep and REM sleep. The body’s internal clock or circadian rhythms can change, and other health issues or medications can disrupt our sleep patterns, leading to fatigue and other complications. Our sleep chronotypes also change during different phases of our lives. By the time we are in our 60s or older, we tend towards a strong morning chronotype, which means feeling sleepy earlier and waking up earlier.
Large studies have consistently shown that there are links between long-term sleep problems and early dementia, as well as early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. A 2021 study in Nature Communications that followed thousands of people for more than twenty-five years discovered that people who had sleep problems that started in midlife and weren’t addressed had a 30–40 percent higher risk of dementia later in life.
Furthermore, a study of 172,321 adults concluded that men who get adequate sleep live about five years longer than men who don’t. For women, it’s two years. Better sleep equals a longer life.
Obviously, sleep is critical to our mental and physical health, so it’s no wonder that the market for products that promise to help us sleep has grown to monumental proportions.
Since it was first proposed in 1977 by Dr. Peter Hauri, the concept of sleep hygiene has continued to evolve and adapt to contemporary life to include the following checklist of sleep and longevity hacks. This is not an exhaustive list, but I put these together by studying recommendations from multiple sources:
• Keep a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. It helps with your circadian rhythm, especially as it changes as you age.
• Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and heavy meals can impact your sleep. Doctors and organizations like the Cleveland Clinic recommend no alcohol three to four hours before you go to sleep. When we age, we often have fragmented sleep, and these stimulants can reduce sleep quality.
• Keep your room quiet, cool, and dark. (I am known to turn on the air conditioner in winter as a way to cool down the room.) The kind of bed you sleep on is important too.
• Exercise during the day can promote better sleep. Any kind of movement is important, not just for sleep but for your overall health. My exercise regimen tends to be later in the day, so my thesis is that this helps me sleep better at night.
• Try to reduce stress by winding down before you go to sleep. Using meditation apps, sitting in a still position, and concentrating on your breathing can help. Some people stretch or do yoga to move into their preparation for bedtime.
• Try to avoid using technology in bed. My friend Carolyn puts all of her devices, including her phone, in another room before she goes to sleep!
• As people age, it’s even more important to be exposed to both morning and dusk light to maintain circadian rhythms. It helps in your sleep cycle.
Michael Clinton is the Founder & CEO of ROAR Forward and author of Longevity Nation: The People, Ideas, and Trends Changing the Second Half of Our Lives.
Excerpt from Longevity Nation by Michael Clinton, published by Atria Books/Beyond Words 2026
