Conducted by researchers Stanford University The risk of dementia in adults (65-85 years) and their cognitive abilities were measured, and they found a higher risk for patients who slept 6 hours or less compared to those who slept 7 or 8 hours.
There was also a decrease in seniors who slept 9 hours or more Cognitive functions And other health problems, but researchers did not find the same risk of dementia in this group.
The findings illustrate how important it is for adults to maintain a healthy sleep cycle, especially as they age.
As adults age, it is common for them to change or disrupt their sleep patterns, resulting in long, short or irregular sleep.
This disorder may be associated with Alzheimer’s disease and others Forms of dementiaIt affects the ability of the elderly to remember information, solve problems, and follow daily behaviors.
Sleep disturbances can also be caused by stress, heart disease and moreBlood vessels And other cases.
A new study from Stanford University provides additional evidence for the relationship between sleep and brain function as it covers the health records of nearly 4,400 patients aged 65 to 85 years.
These patients underwent brain scans and other cognitive tests, but were not diagnosed with dementia.
These data were obtained from a long-term trial of Alzheimer’s disease, which was conducted in 67 clinics United States Canada, Australia and Japan.
The researchers classified these patients according to the time they slept. Sleep time was reported by patients and was not measured by a sleep monitor.
The researchers said that the recommended sleep time for the elderly is 7 to 8 hours, which is 6 hours or less, which is equivalent to short sleep and 9 hours or more.
In previous studies, patients who slept less than 6 hours and 9 hours had worse health effects, although short sleep was more dangerous.
Stanford University researchers have measured beta-amyloid levels, a protein in the brain that is commonly found in high levels when developing Alzheimer’s disease.
In addition, the researchers used multiple tests of memory, attention, spatial skills, and administrative function to determine patients’ cognitive abilities.
The researchers found that patients who slept 6 hours or less at night were more likely to develop dementia, and that patients with poor sleep had higher levels of beta-amyloid.
“The amyloid beta is one of the first signs of the evolution of amyloid,” Joe Weiner, Stanford’s postgraduate researcher and lead author of the study, told CNN. Alzheimer’s disease“.
“In Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid proteins begin to accumulate throughout the brain and stick to plaques.”
The findings of the Stanford study are consistent with previous research, which shows that short sleep may be associated with dementia.
Stanford University researchers found that patients with poor sleep performed poorly on memory tests, while those who slept for long periods of time (9 hours or more) performed poorly on administrative function tests, which measured the brain’s ability between different tasks.
Patients with prolonged sleep had normal levels of beta-amyloid, indicating that the risk of developing dementia was not as severe as that of poor sleep.
Researchers have found that people with less and more sleep tend to sleep more during the day.
In addition, low and high sleep had a high body mass index and depressive symptoms.
“It’s important to maintain good sleep until old age,” Weiner told CNN.
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