According to a study published recently in The Sleep Magazine , sleep well can help us maintain mental acuity as we get older. Getting enough sleep and well has many benefits, and this study shows us one more. Do you want to find out?
Sleeping helps us keep our brain young
Researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have found that older people who sleep less also have their brains older. These findings suggest that sleep deprivation is a significant factor in cognitive decline , including dementia.
Previous studies have already shown that the quality and duration of sleep can affect the cognitive functions of older adults, but this new study explains why.
The Duke-NUS study examined 66 older Chinese adults, who underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that measured their brain volume and tests of cognitive function every two years. The researchers also asked the elderly about their sleep quality and how much they slept each night.
The results showed that those who said they slept fewer hours clearly had different brain functions, which had been linked to age-related cognitive decline and the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's than those who slept more hours.
"Our findings relate short sleep to a marker of brain aging," said lead researcher, June Lo, Work MD. According to this researcher, "seven hours of sleep per day for adults seems to be the optimal point for performance in computerized cognitive tests."
It seems incredible that one thing that we like so much, like sleeping, is something that we renounce so easily. If being in a good mood, being more creative, being more productive and having better health is not enough excuse to sleep, maybe not making it easy for dementia or Alzheimer's is already the ultimate reason to afford to sleep and put the means To do it good.