Small improvements in physical activity, such as two to five minutes or more of brisk walking, and changes in sleep and diet can have a significant impact on lifespan. This could reduce mortality rates across the population, providing a practical starting point for healthy behavior change. This information emerged from a study.

According to the new study, published in The Lancet's eClinicalMedicine journal, a five-minute increase in sleep, two minutes of brisk walking, and an extra serving of vegetables daily could add a year to the lives of those with the poorest sleep, physical activity, and dietary habits. The study's findings suggest that when small improvements in sleep, physical activity, and diet are combined, they can lead to significant changes in lifespan. This provides a sustainable and more practical starting point for behavior change.

The study was conducted by an international research team from the UK, Australia, Brazil, and Chile. The study defined the combination of the worst behaviors as including less than five hours and 30 minutes of sleep per day, less than 10 minutes of physical activity, and a poor diet quality score. The most favorable combination—seven to eight hours of sleep per day, at least 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and a healthy diet—was associated with an increase of more than nine years in lifespan and years lived in good health.

Small Improvements Yield Big Benefits
The team also found that the combined effect of sleep, physical activity, and diet is greater than the sum of the individual behaviors. For example, to gain a year of lifespan through sleep alone, those with the worst lifestyles would need an additional five minutes per day—that is, 25 minutes more sleep—compared to making smaller improvements in physical activity and diet as well. The study authors wrote that at least five minutes of sleep per day, 1.9 minutes of MVPA (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) per day, and a five-point increase in dietary quality score (such as the addition of extra vegetables or an extra 1.5 servings of whole grains per day) were associated with an additional year of life expectancy.

A study was conducted on 60,000 people
Approximately 60,000 participants from the UK Biobank were recruited between 2006 and 2010 and followed up for approximately eight years. A subgroup wore a wrist-worn device for seven days between 2013 and 2015, which measured physical activity.

Reduced risk of death with physical activity
Another study published in The Lancet journal found that spending five more minutes on light physical activity, such as walking at a pace of five kilometers per hour, could reduce the risk of death by 10 percent in most adults, and by six percent in those who are less active. If most adults, who sit for an average of 10 hours a day, reduce their sitting time by 30 minutes each day, there could be a seven percent reduction in all-cause mortality. If they reduce it by one hour, there could be a 13 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.

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