Seven hours of sleep has also been found to be associated with better mental health, with people experiencing more symptoms of anxiety and depression and worse general well-being if they reported sleeping for longer or shorter periods. “While we can not say for sure that too little or too much sleep causes cognitive problems, our analysis of looking at people for longer periods of time seems to support this idea,” said Jianfeng Feng, a professor at Fudan University in China. The study, published in the journal Nature Aging, said in a statement.
“But the reasons why older people have poorer sleep seem to be complex, influenced by a combination of our genetic makeup and the structure of our brain.” Researchers from China and the United Kingdom analyzed data from nearly 500,000 adults aged 38 to 73 who were part of the UK Biobank – a long-term, government-sponsored health study. Participants were asked about their sleep patterns, mental health and well-being and took a series of cognitive tests. Brain imaging and genetic data were available to nearly 40,000 of the study participants. Other research has found that older people who have difficulty sleeping and who often experience nightmares are at higher risk of developing dementia or dying early from any cause, and sleeping less than six hours a night has been linked to cardiovascular disease. One reason for the relationship between too little sleep and cognitive impairment could be due to deep sleep disorder, when the brain repairs the body from daytime wear and tear down memories. Too little sleep is also associated with the accumulation of amyloid, a basic protein that can cause confusion in the brain that characterizes some form of dementia. The study also said that prolonged sleep duration may be due to poor quality, fragmented sleep. Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, said longer sleep duration was associated with cognitive problems, but it was not entirely clear why. “This sets the stage for future research and treatment,” said Dasgupta, who did not participate in the study. “Sleep is necessary as we grow older and need it just as much as younger people, but it is more difficult to achieve.” The study had some limitations – it only assessed how much time the participants slept in total and not any other measure of sleep quality, such as waking up at night. In addition, participants reported the amount of sleep they received, so it was not measured objectively. However, the authors said that the large number of people who participated in the study meant that its conclusions were probably strong. The authors say their findings suggest that it is important for sleep, ideally about seven hours, to be consistent. The study showed a link between too much and too little sleep and cognitive problems, not cause and effect, warned Russell Foster, a professor at Oxford University and director of the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, who did not participate. in research. He said the study did not take into account the state of health of individuals and that short or long sleep may be an indication of underlying health conditions with cognitive problems. He also said that taking the average of seven hours as the ideal amount of sleep “ignores the fact that there is a significant individual variation in sleep duration” and quality. More or less sleep may be perfectly healthy for some people, he said. “We are regularly told that the ‘ideal’ night of sleep in the elderly should be seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. This belief is wrong in many ways. Sleep is like the size of a shoe, one size does not fit all, and “Sleeping well this way can be confusing and stressful for many,” said Foster, author of the upcoming book Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolve Your Sleep and Health. “How long we sleep, our preferred sleep times and how many times we wake up during the night vary considerably between people and as we grow older. Sleep is dynamic and we all have different sleep patterns and the key is to evaluate what our person is.” needs are “.