Data from: Sleep and subjective age: Protect your sleep if you want to feel young

The current studies examined the impact of insufficient sleep and sleepiness on the subjective experience of age. Study 1, a cross-sectional study of 429 participants (282 females (66%), 144 males, 3 other; age range 18-70) showed that for each additional day of insufficient sleep in the last 30 days, subjective age increased by 0.23 years. Study 2, an experimental crossover sleep restriction study (N = 186; 102 females (55%); 84 males; age range 18-46) showed that two nights of sleep restriction (4h in bed/night) made people feel 4.44 years older compared to sleep saturation (9h in bed/night). Additionally, moving from feeling extremely alert (KSS score of 1) to feeling extremely sleepy (KSS score of 9) was associated with feeling 10 years older in both studies. These findings provide compelling support for insufficient sleep and sleepiness to exert a substantial influence on how old we feel, and that safeguarding sleep is likely a key factor in feeling young.