Quite a profound point, really

Public Health England is telling people to get more sleep. According to the Sleep Council (whoever they are), people who get less than six hours sleep are 12 per cent more likely to have an early death.

Timmy makes a pertinent point when he says:

So if you reduce your sleep time by 25%, from 8 hours to 6 hours, you get to see 13% more of life & most of it when you’re young enough to enjoy it.

Sounds like a no-brainer, to me.

It is, at the very least, a reasonable trade-off to make and it illustrates one of the problems with the 'public health' movement. It is really a longevity movement. They forget that it's not the length that matters, it's what you do with it.