Getting less than 7 hours of sleep a night is shortening your life, study finds here are 5 tricks to snooze faster

Failure to get a proper night’s rest could send you to the big sleep faster.In a new study published this week, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University found that, far more than diet, exercise or loneliness, sleep quality stood out as a primary predictor of life expectancy, second only to smoking.“I didn’t expect it to be so strongly correlated to life expectancy,” said senior author Andrew McHill, Ph.D., “We’ve always thought sleep is important, but this research really drives that point home: People really should strive to get seven to nine hours of sleep if at all possible.”Over a third of adults fail to get the recommended seven hours of sleep each night, and according to government estimates, 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders. While previous research has shown that prolonged sleep loss can lead to several health problems — including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression — this study is the first to reveal the correlation between sleep and life expectancy for each US state.“This research shows that we need to prioritize sleep at least as much as we do to what we eat or how we exercise,” said McHill.But just because you know more sleep is better for you doesn’t mean getting those extra ZZZs is easy.

If you’re struggling to get a solid eight hours, these tricks might help.Similar to shuffling a deck of cards, cognitive shuffling is a technique that rearranges thoughts, distracting the mind from the problematic patterns that prevent sleep.To begin, pick a non-emotional word such as lake.Take the first letter of the word, and think of several other words that begin with the same letter; list, last, lost, etc.

Move on to the remaining letters.When you reach the end of the word, pick a new one and keep going.Experts claim cognitive shuffling works by easing the restless mind into a relaxed, ready-for-sleep state, signaling that it is safe to slumb...