'Early To Bed and Early To Rise Makes a Man Healthy...'?

We're often told it's important to get a 'full night's sleep' of 7-9 hours. Our exercise watches, for example, constantly remind us of this 'truism'. Benjamin Franklyn is credited with the phrase "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Old Ben might have been the more accurate about sleep, at least with respect to the first part. A study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health recently looked at data for more than 72,000 people, aged 40-79, in the UK Biobank. It found that, variations in the times a person goes to sleep and wakes up, were strongly associated with increased risks of stroke, heart attack and heart failure. There was a 26% increase in risk of these conditions, even in folk who got a 'full night's sleep'. Subjects furthest away from regular retiring to bed and rising times, had the greatest risk (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/26/irregular-sleep-pattern-raises-risk-of-stroke-and-heart-attack-uk-study-finds). It consequently seems that sleeping routines are more important than duration. Perhaps, a regular routine gives a better quality of sleep. It could also, of course, just indicate that the subject has a less pressured life-style. Emergency and shift workers, will have the most irregular sleep patterns.