The single biggest thing you can do to improve your health

Study after study has shown the single best way that most people can improve their health, cognitive functioning, and even lengthen their lifespan. It's free, relatively simple (compared to other lifestyle changes) and the good news is you're already doing it - you probably just need to do a little bit more.

Ready for it?

The answer is: get enough sleep.

Most of us are fooling ourselves about the amount of sleep we get in a night. And/or fooling ourselves about how little sleep we can function on. People tend to brag about how little sleep they get, how early they wake in the morning, and how late they stay up at night. But this bragging is just shooting yourself in the foot. Most adults need at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night in order to function at optimal levels.

Take this quick test: How many hours a night would you sleep if you were to take a week off work with nothing much to do? More, right? If that's the case, then you are experiencing chronic sleep deprivation, and it is - in a thousand different subtle ways - making your life more miserable than it needs to be.

It may not be easy to transition to getting a proper full night's sleep. Sleep can seem pretty boring if you're staying up late playing a video game or reading a good book. And to make things worse, most people have an easier time sleeping later rather than going to bed sooner… but most of us have jobs that frown on sleeping later than we already are.

One way is to start by forming a nightly routine. Do the same things in the same order every night for a week, regardless of what they are. Then start moving your routine forward, even just a few minutes every night. This can ease you into better sleep habits gently over the course of several months, rather than trying to fix everything all at once and getting frustrated when it doesn't work.

Image courtesy Flickr/multi.phrenic