World's Oldest Person Susannah Mushatt Jones Says You Should Sleep More

Get to bed early tonight and hit that snooze button one more time tomorrow. According to the world's oldest person, sleep was a key factor in her making it to 116 years old, USA Today reported.

The Guinness Book of World Records announced Susannah Mushatt Jones officially took the title as world's oldest person Monday when she turned 116. Jones credited "lots of sleep" as the main reason for her long life. With the folks at Guinness she was more succinct, simply noting “Sleep!” as her secret.

Jones was born in a small Alabama town outside Montgomery on July 6, 1899. She was the daughter of sharecroppers and had 10 siblings, all of whom she outlived. She graduated high school in 1922, eventually making her way to New York City in the Roaring '20s. In New York, Jones helped create a scholarship fund for young African-American women to go to college and was active in her public housing's tenant patrol until she was 106, USA Today said.

Known as "T," short for "Auntie," Jones has lived in a public housing facility for seniors in Brooklyn, New York, for more than 30 years and has more than 100 nieces and nephews. She became the world's oldest person -- and the world's oldest woman -- after Michigan woman Jerlean Talley died in June at 116.

Jones went blind from glaucoma and is hard of hearing, but she takes just two pills every day: a blood pressure medication and a multivitamin. She sees a doctor just once every four months. Along with sleep, Jones also credits clean living -- free of partying, smoking and drinking -- for her long life, her niece Lois Judge told WNBC-TV, New York.

That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to enjoy life. She eats bacon, eggs and grits for breakfast and has a sign in her kitchen that reads, "Bacon makes everything better," USA Today reported.

Jones had two birthday celebrations planned, one with family Monday and one with housing community friends Tuesday.