A new study suggests that the age you feel may have a direct link to the quality of your sleep. Researchers examined data from more than 3,100 adults to understand the relationship between subjective age, or the age a person feels, and several measures of sleep health.
The study included 3,177 adults with an average age of 42.8, and nearly half were women. Participants completed an online survey that asked for demographic information and their subjective age through the question “How old do you feel?” The survey also used validated measures for sleep, including the Insomnia Severity Index and the Sleep Regularity Questionnaire. Researchers also assessed depression, anxiety, and self-reported physical health. Age discrepancy was calculated as the difference between subjective and chronological age, divided by chronological age. A positive value meant a person felt older, while a negative value meant they felt younger.
The results showed that people who felt older than their actual age reported more insomnia symptoms, more sleep-related impairments during the day, lower overall sleep health, and less consistent sleep schedules. This link held true even after researchers accounted for chronological age, sex, race, depression, and anxiety. This means the effect was not simply explained by being older, more anxious, or more depressed.
The researchers also explored whether sleep might explain the connection between feeling older and having poorer physical health. They found that a higher age discrepancy was linked to increased insomnia, greater sleep-related impairment, and lower sleep regularity. Each of those sleep variables was in turn linked to worse self-reported physical health. This suggests that sleep is one of the pathways through which feeling older may affect the body.
Potential Two-Way Relationship
The study establishes that feeling older predicts worse sleep, but it does not test the reverse direction. However, the researchers note it is possible the relationship works both ways. Poor sleep may also make a person feel older. When someone is chronically under-rested, everything can feel harder, and it is easy to interpret that as aging. If sleep and subjective age reinforce each other, improving sleep quality could be a direct way to change how old a person feels.
One of the key findings was the role of sleep regularity, or how consistent a person’s sleep and wake times are. Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day, even on weekends, was linked to how old a person felt. The study also challenges the common assumption that sleep naturally gets worse with age and that nothing can be done. The research suggests insomnia symptoms are treatable, and addressing them early can have effects on both physical health and how old a person feels.
The study also points to the role of negative age perceptions. Actively challenging the idea that feeling older is inevitable may be part of the solution. Supporting sleep through daily habits like consistent exercise, stress management, and morning light exposure can help support deep, regular sleep. These habits tend to reinforce each other, creating a feedback loop that compounds over time.
