No, you don't need 8 hours sleep a night — new study shows this is all the sleep you need for healthy aging

A close up of mattress tester Becky George sleeping at night.

Is it time to say goodbye to the 'eight hour' sleep myth? Regularly clocking up over eight hours of shut-eye a night might actually have a negative impact on your health, as a new study published in Nature finds it can accelerate markers of biological aging.

Researchers instead place the sleep duration sweet spot for healthy aging between 6.4 and 7.8 hours a night. Both under- and over-sleeping can contribute to health risks including brain, heart, and muscular aging.