According to a large-scale study of 25 years, middle-aged adults who sleep six hours or less are at an increased risk of dementia, compared to those who regularly stand still for seven hours.
The results suggested that sustained short sleep in adults aged 50, 60 and 70 was associated with a 30% greater risk of dementia, which persisted after taking into account factors such as mental health, sociodemography and cardiometabolic state.
“Sustained short sleep duration was associated with an increased risk of dementia compared to people with sustained normal sleep duration,” the study authors wrote.
DEMENTIA PATIENTS MORE RISK OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION, HOSPITALIZATION, STUDY FINDINGS
A team of French researchers published findings in the Nature Communications journal Tuesday, from a Whitehall II study involving nearly 8,000 British participants. Dementia is a broad term for neurodegenerative diseases that affect memory, attention and communication, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that 5 million adults 65 and older were living with dementia in 2014. The agency expects this figure to more than double. to nearly 14 million by 2060.
The risks for dementia increase significantly with age, especially among those 65 and older, the CDC says, although other risk factors include family history and race / ethnicity.
To arrive at their conclusions, researchers performed repeated measurements on the sleep duration of 7,959 participants over a 25-year period, collecting self-reported data, as well as information from wristwatch accelerometers, and 521 participants developed the disease.
There is some evidence that sleep supports cognitive performance and removes toxic beta-amyloid protein plaques from the brain, so sleep deprivation may result in “a deleterious effect,” the authors noted. Amyloid plaques can disrupt nerve cells in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, which are said to be responsible for the vast majority of dementia cases.
“The build-up of amyloid plaque contributes to poor sleep in older adults by directly affecting the brain regions of the sleep-wake regulator,” the authors wrote.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
However, sleep problems are sometimes an early sign of dementia. Dr. Séverine Sabia, corresponding study author at the University of Paris, stops establishing a causal relationship between sleep duration and dementia risk.
“These findings suggest that sleep duration may be a risk factor for dementia later in life,” said the Guardian. “I can’t tell you that sleep duration is a cause of dementia, but it can contribute to its development.”
The corresponding author did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.