Making very small changes to your daily routine can help you live longer, according to a new study published in The Lancet. Researchers found that just five extra minutes of sleep and two minutes of moderate exercise each day can add one full year to a person’s life.
The study followed around 60,000 people for eight years. It showed that people with poor sleep, low physical activity, and unhealthy diets gained the most benefit from small improvements. Even adding half a serving of vegetables to the daily diet helped increase life expectancy.
Researchers explained that healthy habits work best when combined. Improving sleep, physical activity, and diet together gives better results than focusing on only one habit. For example, to gain one extra year of life by improving sleep alone, a person would need about 25 more minutes of sleep daily. But when small improvements are made in exercise and diet as well, only five extra minutes of sleep is enough.
The study also showed that people who slept seven to eight hours a day, exercised for more than 40 minutes daily, and ate a healthy diet could gain over nine extra years of life, many of them in good health.
Another study published in The Lancet looked at walking habits. Researchers found that adding just five minutes of walking every day reduced the risk of death by 10 per cent for most adults. For people who were very inactive, the risk dropped by about 6 per cent.
The study also found that sitting less is important. Reducing sitting time by 30 minutes a day lowered the risk of death by around 7 per cent for people who sit for about 10 hours daily. For those who sit for nearly 12 hours a day, the risk could drop by 3 per cent.
Experts said these findings are meant to guide public health advice, not personal medical decisions. The main message is simple: small, positive lifestyle changes can bring big health benefits for the whole population.
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