Less sleep in middle age can cause early brain aging; study shows

Brain scans revealed higher levels of shrinkage – a sign of brain aging – in people with poor sleep quality in early middle age, according to a study.

A group of 589 people aged an average of 40 answered sleep questionnaires at the beginning of the study and again five years later. The participants' brains were scanned 15 years after the study began.

“Our study, which used brain scans to determine the brain age of participants, suggests that poor sleep is associated with approximately three years of additional brain aging in early middle age,” the California San Clemens Cavallis of the University of Francisco and corresponding authors said in the study published in the journal Neurology.

Poor sleep habits are linked to poor thinking and memory later in life, increasing people's risk of dementia, Cavallis said. The sleep habits of the participants were classified as – short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, early morning awakening, and daytime sleepiness. Thus they were divided into three groups according to low, medium and high levels of poor sleeping habits.

The researchers said that brain shrinkage revealed in brain scans was used to measure brain age, with higher levels indicating greater age. The team found that people who had moderate sleep habits had an average of 1.6 years longer brain age. People whose sleep level is low.

People who had higher levels of poor sleep habits had an average brain age that was 2.6 years older than those with lower levels of poor sleep habits.

“Our findings highlight the importance of addressing sleep problems earlier in life to maintain brain health, including maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, exercising, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before going to bed and Including using relaxation techniques,” said author Christine Yaffe from the University of California. San Francisco, said.

“Short sleep was associated with increased brain aging in midlife, highlighting the importance of investigating early sleep interventions to maintain brain health,” the authors wrote.

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