A study at Northwestern claims a good night's sleep is the result of "having a purpose in life." But some wonder if it's a chicken and egg question.
Kelsey-Seybold sleep expert Dr. Puneet Patni says maybe this should be phrased in the other direction.
"It may be that those people have a purpose in life or more of a purpose in life because they sleep well, to begin with."
Dr. Patni says we know from treating depression patients, sleep can work wonders with mental conditions.
"If you address the insomnia independently then actually that can go the opposite direction and have benefits in people's depression."
Dr. Patni says it would be difficult to tell a patient who doesn't have a particular purpose in life to suddenly find one.
"Just asking someone to find a purpose in their life, that's a bit of a challenging thing to do and it remains to be seen if that has any impact on their health and quality of life; I don't think this really proves that."
The study had 823 participants between the ages of 60 and 100.