Brain Health
Keep your brain sharp by finding your sleep 'sweet spot,' study says.
Like everything else, sleeping is best habit when the duration of sleep is neither too short nor too long. In fact, with age, people who are accustomed to sleeping too little or too much have a lower risk of mental retardation than those who enjoy a good night's sleep.
This was revealed in a new medical study in the United States.
Poor sleep and Alzheimer's disease are both linked to dementia, and separating their effects is no less of a challenge.
The study, by the Washington University School of Medicine, looked at the brain functions of several older people over several years while examining Alzheimer's-related proteins and brain activity during sleep.
The researchers collected vital data that would help understand the complex relationship between sleep, Alzheimer's, and brain functions. Alzheimer's is the principal reason for dementia in the elderly, accounting for 70% of dementia cases.
Lowly sleep is a common symptom of the disease and speeds up its progression. The researchers said that the duration of sleep is very important to keep brain function stable over time.
The study included 100 elderly people who had early signs of Alzheimer's and found that 6 to 8 hours of sleep stabilized brain function.
Research has shown that if a person is accustomed to sleeping for less than 5 and a half hours, his brain function is affected and the same happens with people whose sleep duration is more than 7 and a half hours.
According to research, not only the short duration of sleep but also more sleep accelerates the rate of mental decline, this suggests that the duration of sleep, not the quality is the key. That is, asleep during which people go through all four stages of sleep 4 to 6 times every night.
Because each cycle lasts 90 minutes, most people need 7 to 8 hours of continuous sleep to achieve this goal. In the first 2 stages of sleep, your rhythm begins to slow down, your heartbeat and breathing slow down, your body temperature drops, and your eyes stop moving.
This prepares you for the next stage of deep sleep, the time when the brain begins to repair the effects on the body by running all day and the body restores itself to the cellular level. The last stage is when we dream, for which the term rapid eye movement sleep is also used.
The research was published in the Brain medical journal.
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