A study published in July 2024 explored how the quality and duration of sleep affected long-term health risks. Using data from Fitbit smartwatches, researchers tracked each participant’s sleep over an average of 4.5 years.

They found that around seven hours of sleep per night was linked to the lowest risk of health issues. Getting more or less sleep raised the risk of conditions like high blood pressure and generalised anxiety disorder.

The study also looked at different sleep stages; people who had more REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep had a lower risk of heart rhythm issues, including atrial fibrillation. The Fitbit data gave a detailed look at sleep cycles that would be difficult to measure otherwise.

However, the study mostly included college-educated people, which means the findings may not apply to everyone equally. The researchers plan to address this in future work.

This kind of research shows how smartwatches can help us better understand the connection between sleep and health, potentially improving recommendations on healthy sleeping habits.

Read the full paper: Sleep patterns and risk of chronic disease as measured by long-term monitoring with commercial wearable devices in the All of Us Research Program

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