People with good sleep habits are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease as they age, a study has found.
A team of 21 researchers published the study Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. They examined data from 5,946 middle-aged and older adults who participated in five independent overnight sleep studies with neuropsychological follow-up testing as part of a research consortium.
Their study found adults who reported sleeping longer while lying in bed, spending less time awake after getting up in the middle of the night and breathing regularly without any hint of sleep apnea showed better overall brain function in five years of follow-up cognitive testing than those who struggled to sleep.
Further research is necessary to understand what sleep treatments might help people maintain healthy memory and brain functions at certain stages of life, the researchers noted.
“Sleep and cognition are dynamic across the life span,” they wrote. “However, it is unclear if there are sensitive periods in adult life during which good sleep is more critical for preventing late-life cognitive impairment or whether it is the duration of exposure to suboptimal sleep that is associated with cognitive outcomes.”
The study is among the first to examine sleep and dementia in large groups of older adults with long-term follow-up testing.
Researchers found no evidence that slumbering longer at any one stage of sleep affected brain functions, contradicting a long-debated hypothesis that rapid eye movement or REM sleep is more beneficial to healthier brain function.
They also said they found “little evidence” to suggest gender or excessive daytime sleepiness impacted cognitive performance after waking.
“With respect to individual cognitive domains, only short sleep duration was associated with poorer attention and processing speed,” the researchers wrote.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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