7 ms·

Some interesting quotes: "Those with the highest risk of dying from cancer or heart disease during the study period were those with the worst quality sleep and

Some interesting quotes: "Those with the highest risk of dying from cancer or heart disease during the study period were those with the worst quality sleep and who didn't meet the WHO recommended guidelines for exercise. That risk went down for people with poor quality sleep but who did meet the exercise guidelines." "The study isn't enough to prove causation – that more activity causes the reduction in harms from poor sleep – and it's based on self-reporting rather than independent observations. That said, there's enough of a correlation here to interest scientists." "For now it's not clear why more exercise might make up for poor sleep, as far as our health goes. It could be that the increased activity is counteracting inflammation, or reducing irregularities in glucose metabolism, suggest the researchers."

reedjosh 5y ago
While I do think those are the key quotes of the article, I'm not sure I'd call those interesting. Those quotes belie the truth--the article and any inferred conclusions therefrom are meaningless.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  Not completely meaningless, in that it might point to a direction for further research. There is certainly nothing actionable here though.
  - sadness3 5y ago
    Further research is actionable. This is useful encouragement, because absence of correlation implies absence of causation, so this is an efficient way of eliminating one disproof early.
- itsoktocry 5y ago
  When the conclusion is, literally, that there is correlation between these two variables over which people have control, how can you say it's "meaningless"? It's some evidence of what seems like an obvious hypothesis: sleep is healthy and exercise is healthy; if you do more of one and less of the other it should even out in some manner. They looked at the data and saw that this appears to be the case. The "correlation is not causation" crowd who show up in every scientific article being discussed is the worst kind of pseudo-intellectualism. The authors of the paper went out of their way to say it.
  - reedjosh 5y ago
    > The authors of the paper went out of their way to say it. 2/3rds of the way through. I'm glad myself and others point this out. I personally read the whole article. That's time I can't get back. In the interest of keeping HN content worthwhile, people can and should point this sort of thing out. Plus, the title isn't exercise and sleep correlate with health. The title implies causation.

reedjosh 5y ago

While I do think those are the key quotes of the article, I'm not sure I'd call those interesting. Those quotes belie the truth--the article and any inferred conclusions therefrom are meaningless.

amanaplanacanal 5y ago
Not completely meaningless, in that it might point to a direction for further research. There is certainly nothing actionable here though.
- sadness3 5y ago
  Further research is actionable. This is useful encouragement, because absence of correlation implies absence of causation, so this is an efficient way of eliminating one disproof early.
itsoktocry 5y ago
When the conclusion is, literally, that there is correlation between these two variables over which people have control, how can you say it's "meaningless"? It's some evidence of what seems like an obvious hypothesis: sleep is healthy and exercise is healthy; if you do more of one and less of the other it should even out in some manner. They looked at the data and saw that this appears to be the case. The "correlation is not causation" crowd who show up in every scientific article being discussed is the worst kind of pseudo-intellectualism. The authors of the paper went out of their way to say it.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  > The authors of the paper went out of their way to say it. 2/3rds of the way through. I'm glad myself and others point this out. I personally read the whole article. That's time I can't get back. In the interest of keeping HN content worthwhile, people can and should point this sort of thing out. Plus, the title isn't exercise and sleep correlate with health. The title implies causation.