If everyone followed all of the advice of all of the experts on healthy lifestyle, we would soon find out if being boring increases your mortality risk. For most of us, it just comes down to doing the best we can.

We’ve talk about how to eat and how not to eat. We’ve talked about the effect of obesity on diabetes and high blood pressure. We’ve talked about how to offset some of the bad news with a prudent exercise regimen.

One we haven’t touched on that I can remember is the American tendency to work too hard and sleep too little. A Columbia university study has found a connection between sleep deprivation and diabetes exhibited in increased insulin resistance and decreased glucose tolerance.

This is not a health anomaly. Insufficient sleep has also been shown to have a negative impact on weight control and blood pressure. On average adults should get 7-8 hours of sleep per night. I know in my case it’s a good night when I can get 7 and a home run if I can get 8.

When nightly sleep dips into the 5-6 hour range is when health issues start popping up. Not to mention that your quality of life goes down hill rapidly as it all catches up with you.

Bottom line. Lifestyle again. Building a healthy lifestyle that provides exercise, a healthy diet, enough sleep and enough time off will pay off with better health and of course with that, lower life insurance rates.