Simple lifestyle changes such as sleeping a few minutes longer, adding light exercise, and improving diet may significantly extend lifespan and improve overall health, according to recent long-term research.
One large study that tracked around 60,000 people over eight years found that just five extra minutes of sleep combined with two minutes of moderate physical activity—such as brisk walking or climbing stairs—could add up to a year to a person’s life. Researchers also noted that adding half a serving of vegetables per day could deliver similar benefits, particularly for people with the poorest sleep, exercise, and dietary habits.
The findings suggest that the greatest health gains come from improving multiple behaviors at once. Participants who averaged seven to eight hours of sleep per day, engaged in more than 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, and followed a healthy diet were associated with more than nine additional years of life, much of it spent in good health.
Researchers emphasized that the combined effect of sleep, exercise, and diet is more powerful than improving just one habit alone. For example, achieving an extra year of life through sleep alone would require far more additional sleep than making small improvements across all three areas.
In a separate large-scale analysis involving over 135,000 adults, researchers found that adding just five minutes of walking to a daily routine reduced the risk of death by about 10 percent for most adults. Among the least active individuals, the risk reduction was estimated at around 6 percent.
The study also showed that reducing sedentary time can have a meaningful impact. Cutting sitting time by 30 minutes per day was linked to a 7 percent reduction in deaths among adults who spend roughly 10 hours a day sedentary. Even among the most sedentary individuals—those sitting about 12 hours daily—such changes could reduce deaths by around 3 percent.
Researchers cautioned that these findings are not meant to serve as personalized medical advice. Instead, they highlight how modest, achievable lifestyle changes could have substantial benefits for public health when adopted across the population.
