Summary: A comprehensive analysis of biological aging clocks across the human body shows that both too little and too much sleep are linked to accelerated aging in nearly every organ system.
Using large-scale data and machine learning, researchers identified a coordinated U-shaped relationship between self-reported sleep duration and biological age. The results indicate that sleep supports a connected brain–body network that influences metabolic balance, immune function, and the health of 17 organ systems.
Key Research Findings
- U-shaped relationship: Both short sleep (under 6 hours) and long sleep (over 8 hours) associate with faster biological aging. The lowest biological age across the population appeared among those reporting roughly 6.4 to 7.8 hours of sleep per night.
- Organ-specific aging clocks: Using UK Biobank data, the team built 23 aging clocks representing 17 organs from imaging, proteomics, and other molecular measures. These organ-specific clocks show that different organs age at distinct rates and respond differently to sleep patterns.
- Brain–body connections: Short sleep was strongly linked to mental health conditions (depression, anxiety) and to systemic disorders like obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac arrhythmias.
- Respiratory and digestive links: Both short and long sleep were associated with higher rates of COPD, asthma, and digestive problems such as gastritis and gastroesophageal reflux disease.
- Different pathways to late-life depression: Mediation analysis suggests short sleep may be directly associated with late-life depression burden, while long sleep appears to affect depression partly through brain and adipose-tissue aging pathways.
Source: Columbia University
Overview
This study examined how self-reported sleep duration relates to biological aging measured across multiple organs. The work moves beyond viewing sleep as a primarily brain-centered process and frames it as a key regulator of whole-body physiology. Junhao Wen, assistant professor of radiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and lead author, emphasizes that sleep appears to be essential for keeping organs synchronized and maintaining metabolic and immune health.
The research was published May 13 in Nature.
Aging clocks and what they measure
Aging clocks use machine learning to quantify biological age relative to chronological age by analyzing molecular markers, proteomic profiles, imaging features, and other biological data. While many clocks estimate overall biological age, organ-specific clocks can reveal how individual organs—such as the brain, liver, heart, lungs, and adipose tissue—are aging at different rates. Wen’s group has focused on creating such organ-specific clocks to offer more individualized insight into health and disease risk.
To construct the clocks, researchers used data from the UK Biobank (about half a million participants) and developed 23 models representing 17 organs. These models incorporated structural imaging, organ-related proteins, and blood-based molecular measures so the team could compare how sleep relates to aging across multiple omics layers.
Sleep duration and coordinated aging patterns
When researchers compared participants’ reported daily sleep duration with their biological ages from the 23 clocks, a consistent U-shaped pattern appeared across systems. Both short and long sleepers tended to show larger biological age gaps—meaning their organs appeared older than their chronological age—while people reporting approximately 6.4 to 7.8 hours of sleep had the lowest biological age gaps on average.
The authors stress that sleep duration is unlikely to be the single causal factor driving organ aging. Instead, short and long sleep may be indicators of broader health issues that accelerate aging across multiple systems.
Sleep and disease risk across organ systems
The study links abnormal sleep duration to increased risk of systemic diseases beyond brain disorders. Short sleep showed strong associations with depressive episodes and anxiety, consistent with previous research, and with cardiometabolic conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease, and arrhythmias. Both short and long sleep were connected to respiratory illnesses such as COPD and asthma and to digestive disorders like gastritis and GERD. Overall, the findings support the view that sleep duration is deeply integrated into whole-body physiology.
Late-life depression: different biological routes
Using mediation analysis, the team examined whether organ-specific aging clocks help explain the link between sleep extremes and late-life depression. Results suggest short sleep may exert a more direct effect on depression burden, while long sleep influences depression partly through aging changes in the brain and adipose tissue. The authors note that Mendelian randomization did not provide robust evidence that disease causes sleep changes, though reverse causality cannot be entirely ruled out.
Key Questions Answered:
A: This study analyzed reported habitual sleep duration. The evidence suggests maintaining consistent sleep within the 6.4–7.8 hour range is likely more beneficial for organ health than intermittent long sleep sessions, which were associated with faster aging.
A: Excessive sleep may reflect underlying poor health rather than directly causing aging. The study found long sleep linked to different biological pathways—such as adipose-tissue aging—that can promote inflammation and systemic disease.
A: Researchers train aging-clock models using machine learning on data like blood proteins, metabolites, and organ imaging. These models estimate how many years an organ’s biology differs from a person’s chronological age, indicating accelerated or decelerated aging.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by staff.
About this sleep and aging research news
Author: Helen Garey
Source: Columbia University
Contact: Helen Garey – Columbia University
Image credit: Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. “Sleep chart of biological aging clocks in middle and late life” by The MULTI Consortium et al., published in Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10524-5
Abstract (summary)
Optimal sleep plays a vital role in healthy aging and longevity. The study introduces a Sleep Chart to examine the relationship between self-reported sleep duration and 23 biological aging clocks derived from in vivo imaging, plasma proteomics, and metabolomics. A systemic U-shaped pattern emerges across nine brain and body systems and three omics layers, with the lowest biological age gaps found between about 6.4 and 7.8 hours of sleep in the UK Biobank participants (aged 37–84). Compared with normal sleep (6–8 hours), both short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hours) sleep associate with higher risk of systemic diseases and increased all-cause mortality risks, with links to conditions such as depression and diabetes. Pathway analyses indicate that long and short sleep may lead to late-life depression via different biological mechanisms, where aging clocks partially mediate long-sleep associations while short sleep shows a more direct relationship. Overall, these findings highlight a cross-organ, multi-omics U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and biological aging, suggesting that optimizing sleep may promote healthier aging and lower disease risk.