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Sleep regularity and the risk of dying

How consistent sleep and wake times are from night to night may matter independently of how long you sleep.

Where you stand

This calculator asks a five-level self-report and maps it onto Windred 2024's quintiles. It does not compute a wearable Sleep Regularity Index.

Each row is one study of death risk from sleep regularity. The bright line is what that study found. The band around it is the range the data still supports — it fades where the evidence thins. Left of the centre line is lower risk.

what the study foundstill plausibleno change
most-regular (80–100th) vs least (0–20th)
Windred et al. 2024
30% lower
range 17–41% lower
irregular vs regular
Omichi et al. 2022
30% higher
range 18–44% higher
regular-optimal vs irregular-insufficient sleep pattern (actigraphy clusters, combines duration and regularity)
Chung et al. 2023
39% lower
range 17–55% lower

What it is

How consistent sleep and wake times are from night to night. This calculator asks a five-level self-report. It does not compute a wearable Sleep Regularity Index.

How it is modeled (not scored)

Technical notes

The curve is Windred 2024 (UK Biobank accelerometer SRI, n=60,977). Least-regular quintile = HR 1.0. Most-regular (80–100th vs 0–20th) fully adjusted all-cause mortality HR 0.70 (0.59–0.83). The 0.52 (0.45–0.60) on older pages is the same contrast in the minimal model — not used. Interiors 0.91 / 0.84 / 0.76 are log-linear fill, not Table 2. Kalkanis 2025 (59 studies, search to July 2025) is a systematic review, not a meta: heterogeneity of metrics precluded pooling; five low-bias cohorts narratively showed 20–88% higher all-cause mortality for the least regular. Cribb 2023 is the same UK Biobank wave against the median SRI (5th percentile HR 1.53), a different pipeline and comparator. Omichi 2022 (self-report, Japan) HR 1.30 irregular vs regular. Chung 2023 mixes duration with regularity.

How to improve it

  • Anchor a fixed wake time, even on weekends
  • Keep bedtime within a ~1-hour window
  • Use morning light to stabilize your rhythm

What the studies found

EndpointGradeFinding
All-cause mortalityC
0.70, not 0.52 (Windred 2024)
Technical notes
Most-regular vs least-regular quintile: fully adjusted all-cause mortality HR 0.70 (0.59–0.83). The minimal model estimates HR 0.52 for the same contrast.
All-cause mortalityC
No matching-construct meta (Kalkanis 2025)
Technical notes
59-study systematic review, search to July 2025: heterogeneity of metrics precluded meta-analysis. Five low-bias cohorts narratively 20–88% higher all-cause mortality for the least regular — not a pooled HR.
All-cause mortalityC
1.53 vs the Median, Not the Quintile (Cribb 2023)
Technical notes
Same UK Biobank wave, a different pipeline and comparator: vs the median SRI, the 5th percentile (SRI=41) carried all-cause mortality HR 1.53 (1.41–1.66) and the 95th percentile (SRI=75) HR 0.90 (0.81–1.00). Non-linear, plateauing past the median — not the least-regular-quintile contrast the curve uses.
All-cause mortalityC
Self-Reported Irregularity, HR 1.30 (Omichi 2022)
Technical notes
J-MICC cohort of 81,382 adults, mean follow-up 9.1 years, using self-reported sleep/wake regularity rather than an accelerometer SRI — closer to what a user might report than Windred’s device-measured metric. Irregular vs regular sleepers carried all-cause mortality HR 1.30 (1.18–1.44), independent of sleep duration.
All-cause mortalityC
Regular-and-Sufficient vs Irregular-and-Short, HR 0.61 (Chung 2023)
Technical notes
MESA Sleep actigraphy cohort of 1,759 adults, median 7.0 years, 176 deaths: a “regular-optimal” sleep cluster (7.0±1.0 h, regular timing) carried all-cause mortality HR 0.61 (0.45–0.83) versus an “irregular-insufficient” cluster (5.8±1.4 h, roughly twice the irregularity) — a combined duration-and-regularity contrast, not a pure SRI-quintile comparison.

What argues against this

Cribb et al. 2023 reanalyzed the same UK Biobank wave with a different SRI pipeline and a different comparator (vs the median SRI, not the least-regular quintile): the 5th-percentile-vs-median contrast produced a similarly large HR (1.53), but the relationship plateaued past the median, with the 95th percentile reaching only HR 0.90 (0.81–1.00) — a much flatter payoff for above-median regularity than Windred's quintile contrast implies. This challenges the shape and generalizability of the curve's 0.70 figure without reversing the direction of the association.

Last reviewed 12 October 2026

Sources

5 cited
  1. Windred et al. (2024) — Sleep
    Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study
    View source
  2. Kalkanis et al. (2025) — Sleep Medicine Reviews
    Sleep regularity as an important component of sleep hygiene: a systematic review
    View source
  3. Cribb et al. (2023) — eLife
    Sleep regularity and mortality: a prospective analysis in the UK Biobank
    View source
  4. Omichi et al. (2022) — Sleep Health
    Irregular sleep and all-cause mortality: A large prospective cohort study
    View source
  5. Chung et al. (2023) — Journal of Sleep Research
    Objectively regular sleep patterns and mortality in a prospective cohort: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
    View source

Not part of your score
Sleep Regularity is tracked here for its research. It does not count toward the 8-marker MarkerScore. See what does in the calculator.
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Educational content only — not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Not a medical device; not FDA evaluated. Consult a qualified healthcare professional about your own health, and call emergency services for urgent symptoms. Full medical disclaimer →