We need to sleep a lot like we need to eat food.
The debate has been weighed into by a new study. The optimal amount of sleep for people in their late 30s to early 70s is seven hours per night, according to researchers.
The researchers wrote in their new paper that they found a correlation between sleep duration and genetic and cognitive factors, brain structure, and mental health.
Longitudinal analysis showed that excessive sleep duration was associated with a decline in cognitive function.
The team, led by Yuzhu Li from Fudan University in China and Barbara Sahakian from Cambridge University, looked at data from over 500,000 people as part of the UK Biobank study.
Almost 157,000 participants completed an online mental health questionnaire after undergoing neuroimaging. All of the data points went together to show how the amount of sleep people get affects their mental and brain health.
The researchers found a U-shape in the data. The team looked at the effects of insufficient sleep on cognitive function and mental health. Too much sleep was up to 12 hours a day in some cases.
The researchers were able to look into whether there were brain structural or genetic mechanisms behind the U-shape curve because of the neuroimaging data. Much more research will be needed to follow up on leads that suggest genetics and brain structure play a role.
While we can't say that too little or too much sleep causes cognitive problems, our analysis looking at individuals over a longer period of time appears to support this idea.
The reasons why older people have poorer sleep appear to be complex, influenced by a combination of our genetic makeup and the structure of our brains.
We need to mention a couple of things. This research is very expansive, but it is only an observational study, which only shows associations seen in the data.
We can not tell if sleeping less than seven hours causes issues in mental health, wellbeing, or cognitive performance, or if those problems are what lead people to sleep more or less.
The study doesn't say that sleeping six or eight hours will cause significant changes to your wellbeing. There are a lot of reasons why people can't sleep seven hours a night.
The changes are more apparent on the far ends of the scale, such as one hour or 13 hours of sleep a night. The optimal number in the middle of the curve is seven.
Nature Aging, 2022, by Li et al.
There is a correlation between sleep duration and cognitive function and mental health.
If you don't feel refreshed unless you 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
The study shows that getting seven hours of sleep a night as we head into middle and older age is a worthwhile goal. If we can't get that amount as individuals, we shouldn't beat ourselves up.
Getting a good night's sleep is important at all stages of life, but particularly as we age.
It is important to find ways to improve sleep for older people to help them maintain good mental health and wellbeing.
Naps can help you get enough sleep.
Nature Aging has published the research.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
