Minding Your Bedtime? New Research Says It Can Reduce Your Mortality Risk By Over 30%

For this study, researchers looked at data from over 1,700 people who had participated in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep Study.

The participants had worn activity monitors on their wrists, completed clinical sleep studies, and filled out sleep questionnaires.

Upon their analysis, researchers found that participants who had regular sleep schedules and sufficient sleep duration had a 39% lower mortality risk than adults with irregular sleep schedules and insufficient sleep duration.

Based on these findings, it's clear getting enough sleep—and consistent sleep at that—is super important, which entails getting your circadian rhythm in check.

According to naturopathic sleep doctor Catherine Darley, N.D., you can start by standardizing the time you wake up and go to bed, even on the weekends. "Ideally your wake and rise time should not vary more than an hour (or even a half-hour) each day," Darley previously told mindbodygreen, adding that waking at an inconsistent time "makes it so a person isn't predictably sleepy at the same time and can't sleep as well."

That logic applies to bedtime as well, so you'll want to have a solid wind-down routine in place, and a quality sleep supplement on your nightstand. While we don't recommend taking melatonin habitually for sleep, we can get behind research-backed ingredients like magnesium and PharmaGABA®, which have been shown to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. To that end, here are our top picks for the best-quality sleep supplements.

Other factors that can positively influence your sleep schedule include having a consistent daily routine (think mealtimes, workout times, etc.), getting natural light during the day, which stimulates your circadian rhythm, as well as limiting caffeine and alcohol later in the day.