One study concluded that sleep plays an important role in health. Researchers found that common factors such as sleeping for a few hours and taking frequent naps were associated with brain aging.
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NIt is new that sleep quality can affect aging. As the Huffington Post points out, scientific studies have shown that sleeping less than six hours a night is associated with faster aging and a higher risk of mortality.
But what does it really mean to sleep badly?
A new study published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia magazine used data from over 23,000 middle-aged adults and elderly to identify “three sleep behaviors distinctly associated with a marker of brain aging in healthy people”.
Data were obtained from a list of five sleep-related behaviors.
What sleep habits were associated with brain aging?
The researchers used a combination of brain tests and responses to participants’ questionnaires to determine whether certain sleep-related behaviors may be linked to brain aging.
From 2006 to 2010, participants were asked to complete an initial questionnaire on the following topics:
1. Sleep duration;
2. Sets;
3. insomnia;
4. Unintended day naps;
5. I snore.
After nine years, investigators found that the five sleep factors were linked to a higher volume of white matter lesions and associated with brain aging..
After adjusting for other factors that may also cause the problem, such as smoking, cardiovascular health problems, inactivity and high blood pressure, only three appeared to be linked to increased brain aging:
- Sleep less than seven or more nine hours a night,
- Common naps;
- Insomnia
“The results suggest that sleeping little can lead to a greater volume of lesions in the white matter of the brain as we get older,” emphasized the main author of the study, Professor Gene Alexander.
” We observed greater impacts on white matter in people who reported longer sleep duration, but this needs to be investigated in groups with more people who sleep for long periods”.
“Sleep is one of these potentially modifiable risk factors. If we can improve the quality of our sleep, this can help reduce the impacts of brain aging and perhaps even reduce the risk of dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease,” he concluded.