Can Less Sleep Age the Brain?

The less older adults sleep, the faster their brain ages, according to a new study.

In the study, 66 Chinese adults (age 55 and older) underwent structural MRI brain scans to measure brain volume and completed neuropsychological assessments to test cognitive function every 2 years. Furthermore, they were asked to record their sleep duration and quality of sleep.
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Results showed that individuals who slept less per hour displayed a decline in cognitive performance (P = 0.050) and exhibited evidence of faster ventricle enlargement by 0.59%.

“Work done elsewhere suggests that 7 hours a day for adults seems to be the sweet spot for optimal performance on computer based cognitive tests,” said Michael Chee, MBBS, lead author and director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS.

“In coming years we hope to determine what’s good for cardio-metabolic and long term brain health too,” he said.

The complete study is published in the July issue of Sleep.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Lo JC, Loh KK, Zheng H, et al. Sleep duration and age-related changes in brain structure and cognition. Sleep. 2014 July [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.5665/sleep.3832.

Duke NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. Short sleep, aging brain [press release]. July 1, 2014. www.duke-nus.edu.sg/news/short-sleep-aging-brain. Accessed July 2, 2014.