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Things that can save your life: Crosswords and sleep

10 small things that can save your life | Have sex | Look in a mirror
Average rating: 3 out of 5 star rating

7. Do the crossword

Tackling a daily word puzzle has been shown to ward off dementia in older people.

One experiment with pensioners in America demonstrated that physical exercise did not delay the onset of Alzheimer's, but straining their brain made a difference.

In fact, those who did four crossword puzzles a week were less likely to get the disease than those who managed only one.

8. Sleep for 7 hours

Many people think that 8 is the magic number, when it comes to the number of hours we should sleep a night, but one Californian study has discovered that 7 hours is the ideal length of sleep.

Not getting enough sleep is known to be bad for our health, leading to mood swings, obesity and heart disease, but getting too much could be just as bad for us, it seems.

Scientists studied more than 1 million people over 6 years and found that those who slept for 7 hours had the lowest rate of death, and those who slept for more than 7 hours had the highest mortality rate!

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