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Study: Getting More Sleep Feels as Good as Winning the Lottery

Jessica Stillman

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In the midst of a jam-packed life it’s super easy to sacrifice sleep. When your toddler is ill, your favorite Netflix show is at an exciting turning point, or your boss is emailing your urgently late at night, an hour or two of shut eye seems far less urgent by comparison. Soon all those short nights and early wake-ups add up and you find yourself chronically sleep deprived.

If this sounds like you, a new study dramatically underlines what health professionals have been telling us for years — sleep is way more valuable than you think.

How valuable exactly?

In fact, adequate rest will make you feel as good over the long-term as winning a $250,000 lottery jackpot, a massive British study concluded.

Putting a price tag on feeling well rested

If that sounds a little outlandish to you, be aware this isn’t quack science. The study, conducted by University of Warwick researchers, followed more than 30,000 British adults for four years, tracking the amount of shut eye they got as well as their mental and physical health.

Here’s the startling takeaway, according to Amanda MacMillan of Health.com: those who improved their sleep over the course of the study saw mental health boosts “comparable…

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